Fears over new swine flu phoneline

MILLIONS of Britons were told yesterday not to go to a doctor if they have swine flu but instead ring a new phoneline – manned by staff with no medical training.

Andy Burnham is calling on the public not to panic Andy Burnham is calling on the public not to panic

As MPs prepared to break for an 82-day summer holiday in the middle of the worst health crisis for decades, Health Secretary Andy Burnham called on the public not to panic.

He said they should use the new emergency National Pandemic Flu Service in a bid to take the pressure off GPs.

Confirming that nine out of 10 NHS regions were now experiencing “exceptional levels” of people exhibiting flu-like symptoms, he announced the new emergency service would “go live” by the end of the week.

As a result, anyone fearing they have the virus should no longer go to their doctor, but first ring a call centre – manned by 1,500 staff – where they will be given advice on their condition.

However, as fear continues to sweep the country following 29 deaths from the H1N1 strain of the virus, the Daily Express has learned that those staffing the new helpline will not have anybackground in medicine. A spokesman for the Department of Health said: “Agents are not medically trained and will not be able to answer any other questions.”

Staff at the call centres – whose location the ministry refused to reveal – will be given some training on how to recognise the signs of the virus from an NHS approved checklist. They will then be able to dish out anti-viral drugs.

The spokesman said: “All call-centre agents will be trained by NHS Direct’s personnel. A key aspect of training will be use of the clinically approved diagnostic tool which agents will be following at all times. In practice, they will be helping callers complete the same diagnostic tool that is on the web.”

But last night patients’ groups attacked the move, saying that using call-centre staff with no medical training could lead to dangerous mistaken diagnoses.

Michael Summers, vice-chairman of the Patients’ Association, said: “While we do want to take pressure off GPs at this very difficult time, we also have concerns that these so-called trained staff may not have the ability to recognise the contra-indications of patients taking Tamiflu because they will not have access to the patients’ medical records and won’t understand the possible dangers.”

This could particularly apply to pregnant women, he said.

Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley suggested some of the “confusion” seen since the pandemic alert was declared in June could have been avoided had a better system been put in place.

He said it was known that the Treasury had delayed signing the contract for the phoneline with BT until December. He said: “Even so, in March of this year your department said it could be available by April or May. It should, according to the plan, have been activated in mid-June when the pandemic alert was declared, but it wasn’t activated.

“To that extent it is a month late. It is clear much of that confusion we have seen in that month could have been avoided if the Government had delivered the pandemic flu line on time. BT say they did all that was asked of them – who and what caused the delay?”

Meanwhile, Mr Burnham stressed that vaccines would be available from August with enough for 30 million people by the end of the year. The Government would be taking “all necessary steps to ensure the vaccine is appropriately tested”.

In a statement ahead of the 11-week parliamentary recess, Mr Burnham said that while the virus had spread quickly it had not become more dangerous. He dismissed suggestions that advice, particularly to pregnant women, had not been clear. He said it had not changed since the outbreak began. Chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson had said most pregnant women with swine flu would get only mild symptoms but pregnancy brought a higher risk of complications.

Mr Burnham said mothers-to-be were currently advised to continue “normal activities” such as going to work, travelling on public transport and attending events and family gatherings. He added: “But they are advised to take the following steps to reduce risk of infection and complications.”

These included “good hand hygiene”, by frequent use of soap and water, avoiding contact with people known to have swine flu and making early contact with a GP if they were suspected of having the virus.

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