Two women died in hospital after eating sandwiches suspected of containing listeria which were supplied by a Salford-based food company, an inquest heard.
The two women, a retired Jamaican nurse Beverley Sowah, 57, and mother-of-five Enid Heap, 84, were given the chicken mayo sandwiches on consecutive days while they were patients at Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) in 2019.
North Country Quality Foods, based in Salford, which supplied chicken to the Good Food Chain, went into liquidation in 2022.
The sandwiches were made from its “Whole lotta Good” range and were supplied to hospitals via a contract with Sodexo.
A nationwide alert of a listeria outbreak was issued just after both women, who had underlying ill health conditions, died.
The source of the bacteria was linked to an external food supplier and had no relation to the kitchens at the hospital, Manchester Coroner’s Court heard.
A joint inquest for both women, with a jury of five men and two women, began on Monday (March 11). It is scheduled to last up to five days with loved ones of both Mrs Sowah and Mrs Heap attending.
Lawyers are representing North Country Quality Food, then of Hope Street, Ordsall, which supplied the chicken to the Good Food Chain, who made the sandwiches. The chain makes up to 40,000 sandwiches a day.
Listeria can cause an illness called listeriosis. It is a rare infection caused by bacteria and and can be fatal for people with weakened immune systems.
At the start of the hearing, as part of the opening remarks, Zak Golombeck, Manchester city coroner, said: “This case concerns the deaths of two individuals, for whom, there is reason to suspect, they died of a notifiable disease, namely listeria.”
Mrs Sowah was admitted to Manchester Royal Infirmary on April 15 2019. She was suffering from advanced breast cancer, and two days later she was given the chicken mayo sandwich and died on April 26.
There was no evidence of “sub-optimal” care for Ms Sowah apart from the “hospital-acquired” listeria infection.
Mrs Heap, a retired chemist shop assistant, was admitted to the MRI on March 25 2019. She was served a similar type of sandwich on April 18 and died on May 6.
Mr Golombeck said the “primary hypothesis” of the source of the listeria infection was the chicken mayo sandwiches which were eaten by both women.
Dr Kirsty Dodgson, consultant microbiologist at the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the MRI, said in a statement that several outbreak meetings were held to identify the source of the listeria.
She also said that the Health and Safety Executive and Public Health England became involved. It became a nationwide investigation due to other listeria cases in other locations across the country.
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