Four NHS hospitals put on standby to deal with Ebola virus

Four major NHS hospitals have been put on standby in readiness for the Ebola virus, should the outbreak hit the UK.

It comes as health officials admitted there is a "real risk" that the deadly disease could hit Britain.

The four hospitals include the Royal Free in north London, which operates a specialist unit to deal with infectious diseases and was previously identified as the location for treating any UK sufferers of Ebola. It successfully treated William Pooley, the British health worker who was flown back from Sierra Leone where he had been helping to care for patients affected by the virus.