Woman fined £200 over false Covid hospital Facebook posts

Police visited the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth following the Facebook posts

A woman has been fined under coronavirus regulations after posts appeared on social media claiming parts of a Hampshire hospital were "empty".

Hampshire police said officers had identified a 30-year-old woman as the source of the posts referring to the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth and issued a £200 fixed penalty notice.

Hospital management criticised misinformation about the pandemic.

Police said the posts on Facebook had caused "angst in the community".

A statement said the fine was imposed for contravening the requirement to not leave or be outside of the place where the person is living.

"Our officers will continue to engage, explain and encourage the public around the Covid-19 regulations before taking enforcement action for blatant breaches of the regulations," it added.

The posts which appeared last week were among similar images and videos taken of dozens of locations around the country and some have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

After a similar post was uploaded about Southampton General Hospital, University Hospital Southampton NHS Trust said false information was causing "upset and distress" to staff.

The number of Covid patients has increased significantly in recent weeks and there are serious concerns about the NHS's ability to cope with the surge.

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'Incredible job'

However, NHS managers have pointed out that because of the way healthcare trusts have reorganised hospitals, often separating Covid patients from others, and cancelling non-urgent care to free up capacity, some parts of hospital buildings would look empty.

Following the posts, Mark Cubben, chief executive of Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, tweeted: "Saddened to see messages on social media suggesting our wards are empty and pressures we say we're facing are fictional.

"Our staff are doing an incredible job under a great deal of pressure. Please don't disrespect them."

Staff at the Portsmouth hospital have described the "relentless" pressure of dealing with rising numbers of coronavirus patients.

Portsmouth currently has 595 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 people - the average for England is 650.9 for every 100,000 people.

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