A CHILDREN’S hospital unit in East Lancashire was closed for three hours at the weekend after a mouse was found on the ward.

NHS chiefs have insisted there was no serious risk to patients after the small rodent was discovered within the children’s observation and admissions unit at the Royal Blackburn Hospital on Sunday.

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Young patients are referred to the unit at the Haslingden Road complex by their GPs or emergency services.

It has space for 10 beds or cots and three cubicles, alongside the assessment rooms and two small play areas.

Gillian Simpson, operations director for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “On Sunday morning, staff received reports that a mouse had been spotted on the children’s observation and admissions unit at the Royal Blackburn Hospital.

“The staff acted quickly and took appropriate action to allow further investigation to be carried out.

“A small field mouse was discovered, captured immediately and returned back to the wild.

“The disruption caused by this was minimal and normal service was resumed after approximately three hours. At no time was patient safety or care compromised as contingency plans came into place immediately.

“We want to reassure patients and staff that this is an isolated case and that the Trust has excellent pest control practices in place.”

Pest control has been a bugbear for hospital chiefs in the recent past though, compared to their current record.

Trust bosses came under fire in 2006 after a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that pest control teams were called out to Burnley General 286 times in a year, to deal with everything from cockroaches to rats, fleas and wasps’ nests.

The figure for the Royal Blackburn, by comparison, was 143 times.

The announcement led to a £125,000 deep cleaning purge across the hospital trust’s estate.