Swine flu service launched

Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:00 AM

By Liz Stephens

The government's national flu pandemic service will be launched today.

The service - which will cover only England - will include a hotline and internet advice to help relieve the pressure on frontline NHS staff.

It aims to speed up access to drugs for thousands of infected people.

However, there were doubts raised today about the quality of service the call centre will provide after it was revealed that the 1,500 staff will not be medically trained.

The Department of Health has stressed the staff will be monitored by medically qualified managers.

The call centre workers will have a checklist of symptoms, allowing them to diagnose callers and give out a numbered code enabling them to get Tamiflu anti-viral medicine.

Patients with underlying health issues will still be referred to GPs.

Earlier in the week, the Liberal Democrats alleged that government in-fighting delayed the launch of the service by six months.

The health secretary Andy Burnham, admitted: "Technology to launch the service has been available for some time."

However, he said that the service was deliberately postponed until a critical point was reached.

"To act any sooner would have been a distraction to health staff dealing with it," he said.

A Department of Health spokesman said the delays were caused because the scale of the flu service project meant it needed to be "rigorously tested".

As the service is introduced, figures are due to be released today showing the number of people contacting their GP and the numbers dying from the disease.

The UK's swine flu death toll, which currently stands at 31, is expected to grow.

British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline said the first batches of its vaccine would not be available until September.

Details of the website address and helpline number have yet to be released.

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