Swine Flu Drugs Service Closed Down

The National Pandemic Flu Service, set up to dispense drugs to patients in England without the need to see doctors, has closed down. The closure on 11 February came after a sharp decline in the number of cases of the H1N1 swine flu virus.

Health officials said the hotline and website could be restored in seven days should the situation change.

As a result of this and the fact that little news was coming out of the NHS and Government, it was decided to also close down the advise pages run on the Unionsafety website. It can be access still via the above logo.

Unionsafety Web Editor, Chris Ingram, said, "The resources required to keep the website's Swine Flu Alert pages updated could not be justified given the lack of new and important information issued by the authorities. From December 17th to 11th February only two updates had been available and so there is little point in keeping pages running which cannot be updated regularly. In the event that Swine Flu does become the pandemic originally forecast, then it will be a simple matter to resurrect and update the pages again."

In the meantime, those concerned can access the Government's information pages giving basic advice as originally issued at www.direct.gov.uk

The Government is still urging parents with young children to have them immunised against the disease.

At its peak, 40,000 people a week received antivirals through the National Pandemic Flu Service but the figure has now fallen to below 5,000 a week.

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