The National Flu Service is about to burst onto the web, and there will be telephones as well, and, thousands of swine flu sufferers will have access to drugs without needing to consult a GP.The phone and website service, which will only cover England, is the first of its kind in the world.
It has been designed to relieve pressure on the NHS and will use a checklist to diagnose cases.
Pregnant women, people with health conditions and the under-ones will still all be referred to GPs.
The Department of Health has accepted that the service could be abused by people giving the answers they believe will give them access to anti-flu drugs.
But Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson has said it is a price worth paying to help the NHS cope with its "biggest challenge in a generation".
I thought that when Bennie Lego Bradshaw departed things might improve in the NHS, but the knobs have really outdone themselves with this one.
What we will have is 1.500 “advisors” in the call centre, most of which apparently do not have English as a first language, and there is capacity for another 500 if necessary.
The free-phone number will only be operational during the day, but officials stressed that it will expand to meet the requirements of the pandemic.
The flu service is not covering the rest of the UK as Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland have all experienced much less demand. They will be able to plug into it if and when they need to.
Dr Richard Vautrey, of the British Medical Association, which has helped to design the checklist being used by the flu service, said: "What we have to remember is that this is a unique situation.
So sod the rest of the UK, and given the virulence of the Porkie Flu what happens when all fifteen hundred go down with it?
Good idea to take the strain off of GPs, bad idea to use this type of method to “diagnose” patients, and why isn’t it in Calcutta?
Angus
Angus Dei on all and sundry
Angus Dei politico
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