Rhiza Labs FluTracker Forum

The cases will be played down because the UK is out of vaccine and can't do much more than try to control panic.

Not good at all. I'm currently watching a 'swine flu statement' from the House of Commons. Andrew Lansley, Health Sec (con/lib party) has just spoken and opposition questioning his 'lack of action' on the whole situation. He's just said we're not in a pandemic. Grief. If and when this statement is available online I will post it. If anyone gets there before me, please post. Thanks

Government accused of 'misjudgement' over flu outbreak

Shadow health secretary John Healey has accused ministers of a "serious misjudgement" over their preparation for the current outbreak of flu, which has killed 50 people in England.
Mr Healey forced Health Secretary Andrew Lansley to the despatch box to answer an urgent question on swine flu on 10 January 2011.
He criticised the government's decision to axe the advertising campaign encouraging vaccination take-up.
Mr Healey said it had been clear the current outbreak would not be like "normal winter flu because we knew swine flu would be dominant".
He said: "So the central question for the health secretary is why he made less preparation for a flu outbreak expected to be more serious."
Mr Lansley told MPs that he had decided to re-instate the "Catch it, Bin it, Kill it" advertising campaign, which aims to limit the spread of flu.
He said: "Every winter flu causes illness and distress to many people. It causes serious illness in some cases and unfortunately some deaths. I know that each death is a tragedy and will cause distress for family and friends.
"But the NHS is again well-prepared to respond to the pressures that winter brings. The NHS has responded excellently this year."

"But the NHS is again well-prepared to respond to the pressures that winter brings. The NHS has responded excellently this year."

Hospital sees fall in flu patient numbers
3:20pm Monday 10th January 2011

COLCHESTER General Hospital says it has seen a drop in the number of people believed to have flu in the last few days. But three people were still in critical care and doctors believe there could be another increase in cases now the new school term has started.

Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust said there was a drop in suspected flu cases with one or two a day, compared to about half a dozen between Christmas and New Year.

A trust spokesman said: “However, now the schools have gone back, we are concerned there is a possibility of a second surge.

“The number of patients we are currently seeing with suspected flu is about normal for an average winter. What is different is that we are seeing more younger people.”

Two women were in the hospital’s critical care unit with swine flu and one man with influenza B.

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Jayne Dowle: Flu failure takes us back to dark age of care
Date: 10 January 2011

My sister has been ill for two weeks, one friend's husband says he felt so poorly over Christmas that even his eyelashes hurt, and a lady in the village has died, apparently from pneumonia contracted after a particularly nasty bout of flu.

I don't want to be alarmist, but we can't ignore the fact that flu is among us. Countless working days have been lost, hospitals are cancelling non-urgent cases to free up beds, and everyone has an anecdote about it.

According to the latest figures from the Health Protection Agency, 50 people have lost their lives to flu this winter, 45 from the swine flu strain H1N1, and five from another strain, flu type B. This won't include those who have died, like that lady, who was only in her 60s, from complications, and all those who are fighting for survival in intensive care.

Thank you to the Health Protection Agency for these figures. This time next year, it might not be around to tell us. The HPA is to be axed as part of the "bonfire of quangos" and its responsibilities handed over to the Government as part of a new public health service. Well, I can only hope that the public health service makes a better job of things than the Government has of handling this latest flu outbreak. The confusion we are experiencing highlights only one thing – that the NHS can't run itself.

For a start, Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, cancelled the national advertising campaign to urge vulnerable groups – the elderly, pregnant women, and those with long-term health problems – to have an annual flu jab, believing that it wouldn't have made any difference to take-up rates.

Inevitably, it was a cost-cutting exercise in disguise, devolving responsibility to individual GP practices to highlight the benefits of vaccination.

In 2009, the cost of promoting the flu vaccine rose to £15m, in response to the outbreak of swine flu that year. So you can see the thinking when last autumn, the posters were scrapped and GPs were instead urged to contact individual patients if they believed them to be at particular risk. However, it is clear that even in the most organised of surgeries, some people will be missed. And as distinguished virologist Professor John Oxford remarked in response to Mr Lansley's decision, "no person on this planet is immune to advertising".

Now Mr Lansley has been forced to play an embarrassing public catch-up. This is evidence, if any was needed, that far too many of this Government's decisions have been rushed and ill-thought, with the focus only on the bottom line. What is even worse is that flu vaccines now appear to be in short supply. Which means that the public doesn't need any encouragement to panic and rush straight down to the surgery to demand their vaccine before it is too late.

It is the responsibility of individual GPs to order their own stocks of "normal" flu vaccine. You could blame them for not having the foresight to order spares, but then again, think of the budget. Who wants to be left with fridge-loads of vaccines for which there might be no demand? It's not going to look good on the balance sheet.

In previous years, GPs had got their flu clinics over and done with in October and November, and understandably, weren't prepared for a late surge.

And really, how can they anticipate how many of their female patients might have got pregnant, or how many elderly patients could have developed respiratory problems over the winter which now put them in the "at-risk"group when a particularly virulent strain hits the population?

There is no fall-back position, which means we now have desperate GPs ringing round pharmacies trying to track down the last remaining vaccines. I don't know about you, but I would rather have my family doctor spend her time treating sick people than driving half-way across the county in search of medicine.

Pharmaceutical companies tell us they can't meet immediate demand because the flu vaccine takes six months to produce. So there is no solution, except to pray that everyone who needs a vaccine eventually gets one. But this state of affairs must surely force Ministers to question their thinking on devolving powers within the NHS.

I can't see any argument against purchasing and distributing "normal" flu vaccine stocks from a central point, as is the case with swine flu vaccines and standard childhood immunisations, thereby ensuring that there is always a national stock for emergencies.

A review will be conducted, apparently. But that "c" word will no doubt cause alarm in Government circles, seeing as ministers seem intent on dismantling the NHS bit by bit over the coming months.

I can only hope that this mishandling of the flu situation stops them in their tracks, and proves that we risk going back several generations, to a time when a National Health Service didn't exist at all, and to a time when people died in their thousands, all for lack of a jab. I don't call that progress, and I don't see how any politician could either.

Rumours were circulating Michael’s death could have been down to swine flu, but the family have dismissed that.

His death certificate lists the causes of death as right leg deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolus and bronchopneumonia.

Five on swine flu critical listSponsored by
Published on Tue Jan 11 09:11:25 GMT 2011

Hospital chiefs today revealed NHS workers have cancelled holidays and worked extra shifts to deal with the number of flu admissions.

Bosses at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust today released information about the current status of swine flu admissions at its hospitals.

There are currently nine patients with confirmed swine flu at Royal Preston and Chorley and South Ribble Hospitals and five of these are receiving critical care. Just days ago, there were 20 patients at the hospitals with confirmed swine flu of which nine were in critical care.

Tony Curtis, chief executive at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, says that the trust was under instruction not to release local swine flu figures as regional data would be revealed by NHS North West and the Health Protection Agency.

He confirmed has now chosen to release the local information and says they will continue to provide these figures.

Mr Curtis said: “There has been a fantastic effort by staff and as a result, we have been able to ensure that no patient has been turned away and many lives have been saved.

“A number of doctors and nurses have cancelled their holidays and provided a tremendous response to the increase in demand for their services.

“Staff have not only cancelled their leave, but have come in over weekends and worked extra shifts to ensure we have been able to have adequate provision for patients who are seriously ill with swine flu.

“Everyone from senior doctors, junior doctors, consultants and nursing staff have all pulled together and must be congratulated for their dedication.

“Through the implementation of the plan in response to swine flu we have not only maximised the use of our existing critical care beds but we have also ventilated patients in other areas of the hospital.

“The plan that we have in place worked has extremely well but we are not complacent and further measures have been put in place in case of an increase in confirmed cases over the next few weeks.

“With schools having recently gone back, there is a potential for further escalation of swine flu cases and we have put further plans into place to prepare for this eventuality.”

Mr Curtis also revealed that hospital workers have also been affected with sickness, which has meant putting measures into place to ensure staffing levels are covered from other areas.

He said: “A significant number of our own staff have had issues with sickness which also has an impact on staffing cover.

“But everyone has pulled together really well and worked hard to make sure we don’t have to turn patients away.”

Mr Curtis added there was no secrecy or lack of transparency at the trust when it came to swine flu figures situation and explained the trust had been following the instructions of the Strategic Health Authority NHS North West.

FLU: ONE DEAD AND THREE IN INTENSIVE CARE

ONE patient with swine flu has died and three others are currently in intensive care at Warwick Hospital, it was confirmed yesterday

In Coventry and Warwickshire, four patients with swine flu have died this winter, but an NHS Warwickshire spokeswoman said it could not be confirmed that they had died directly as a result of the disease.She said that swine flu was part of seasonal flu which caused deaths every winter: “We are not seeing abnormal levels of death this year from seasonal flu (including the swine flu strain), but we are seeing a different demographic of people affected.

“We’re generally seeing a younger demographic affected, whereas generally seasonal flu tends to affect older people more severely.”

Swine flu (Influenza A H1N1) is one of the main strains of this year’s winter flu which is prevalent in the community.

The independent health body, the Health Protection Agency (HPA), said that since the flu season began last October 50 people had died of the disease across England, Wales and Scotland—the majority aged under 65.

Of those, 45 had swine flu strain and five had Influenza B. The majority were under 65—eight were between five and 14, 33 between 15 and 64, and four were over 64. Since October, five children aged under five have died.

The HPA added that this year’s seasonal flu vaccine included a swine flu component so that vulnerable people were protected against the circulating strains.

For the first time, the seasonal vaccine has been offered to pregnant women as they were disproportionally affect-ed by the swine flu strain during the pandemic in 2009, and were more at risk of serious complications.

A spokeswoman for South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Warwick Hospital, said: “We can confirm that sadly one patient has died in our hospital with swine flu. Due to patient confidentiality we will not be giving out any further details but can confirm that they did have an underlying health condition. Our deepest condolences are with the family at this time.”

Psted: Tuesday 11th January.