The mother of a health worker has hit out at Croydon University Hospital after her adult child was allegedly told to come into work - despite herself dealing with a suspected case of coronavirus.

The mum, who wished to remain nameless, has been dealing with a fever, cough, sore throat and aches since late last week.

Her child works at the hospital in a role which sees them come into regular contact with patients. The mum and her child also live together.

But the mum says that despite her child telling the hospital of their mum's symptoms, was asked to continue to come into work as usual for multiple days.

"They called ahead of their shift to tell them that I was unwell and to ask what to do," the worried mum told the Croydon Guardian.

"The hospital said to come to work anyway. They weren't tested and didn't even have their temperature taken."

As of yet the child has not shown any symptoms of being sick.

But the mum is worried about their child passing on any illness to an unsuspecting patient.

"It’s devastating that they could pass it on, that they could be spreading it to vulnerable people."

"I'm shocked they were told to come into work."

But what concerns her the most is that her child can't even get a test done to see if they are carrying the coronavirus.

"I understand they can’t just say 'don’t come in for 14 days' and I appreciate they are in need of staff," she added.

"But why should they not test them?

"Just to test them and if it’s negative then they don’t have to go on one staff member down.

"You would think they would have that sense to stop them going to work that day."

Among other things, official Government guidance says that it is "likely" that people living within a household will infect each other or be infected already.

Advice on top of this says that staying at home for 14 days will greatly reduce the overall amount of infection the household could pass on to others in the community

A spokesman for Croydon Health Services NHS Trust said they are following the guidance.

"As NHS England’s medical director has advised, if anyone, including NHS staff, lives with someone who has symptoms, they need to stay at home for 14 days from the day the first person in the home started having symptoms," they said.

"Our staff are needed more than ever to care for our community and we are continuing to take every step to ready our services and support our teams."

Another thought the mother had was why the hospital wasn't paying for staff who may be at risk of getting sick, to stay at hospitals instead of home.

The Croydon NHS spokesman said this was now being implemented.

“To support our staff to stay at work when they are well, we have secured a number of hotel rooms near to the Trust," the spokesman added.

"These will be provided at no cost to staff who are not showing symptoms and wish to stay at work while a family member from their household needs to self-isolate.”