Date: 12/02/2010
With the continued fall in the number of H1N1 cases nationally, the Department of Health has decided to stop the service. This decision has the full support of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), the British Medical Association (BMA) and appropriate pharmacy organisations.
From 11 February if you think you have swine flu, you should stay at home and contact your GP. You can also call NHS Direct on 0845 4647 for further advice.
Please do not go to a hospital A&E department if you think you have swine flu.
Your GP will be able to assess you and authorise antiviral medication if you need this. People who are prescribed antivirals should continue to ask a flu friend to collect the medication for them from one of the four local pharmacies we have designated as collection points.
You should contact your GP straight away and you think you have swine flu and:
Have a serious underlying illness.
Are pregnant.
Have a sick child under one year old.
Your condition suddenly gets much worse.
Your condition is getting worse after seven days (or five days for a child).
Many people have felt reassured by the fall in number of swine flu cases, and the relatively mild illness that has characterised most people’s infections.
However, the chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson continues to stress the importance of being vaccinated to prevent complications, hospital admissions and death in potential future outbreaks of the disease, as swine flu is likely to be the predominant influenza virus during the 2010 flu season
We have therefore asked GPs to make further contact with people in the priority groups who are at higher risk from the disease and who have not yet had the vaccine.
This includes children aged 6 months to 5 years because they are at higher risk of hospitalisation than other age groups if they contract the infection, and there have been high rates of admission to critical care in this age group.
If you are in a priority group you will hear directly from your GP about arrangements to get your vaccination. If you think you are in a priority group and you have not heard directly from your GP about swine flu vaccination, please contact your surgery.
For up to date information:
Visit www.direct.gov.uk/swineflu
Call the Swine Flu Information Line on 0800 1 513 513.
Call our patient advice & liaison service (PALS) on 0800 587 8078 weekdays 9am until 5pm.
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