Health officials took the decision to stop visitors from coming into the hospital unless it was absolutely necessary.

"We have placed restrictions on normal visiting arrangements at Midhurst Community Hospital because of a suspected outbreak of a diarrhoea-type illness," said Sue Giddings, director of nursing and patient safety at West Sussex PCT.

"This decision was made purely to protect the safety of both the patients and their visitors.

"We have also taken a number of other steps designed to contain the spread of the illness, which appears to be similar to the Norovirus.

"Patient areas are being cleaned with disinfectant twice a day, there are currently no new patients being admitted into the hospital, staff are being stopped from working in other community hospitals, and procedures outside of Midhurst Hospital are only being performed on patients when absolutely necessary."

She said it was anticipated the hospital would be operating as normal again within a few days, as long as there were no new cases.

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