§ Mr. MilburnTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what contingency plans his Department has considered for dealing with a flu epidemic; and to what conclusion they have come. [4182]
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§ Mr. HoramHeavy demand on the national health service, whether from natural causes or man-made, is always a possibility and the NHS is required to have contingency plans in place to deal with such incidents and to exercise plans regularly. The weekly rate of influenza infection is monitored by the Royal College of General Practitioners clinical research unit and, if needed, an alert can be issued to public health doctors via the Epinet system.
The Department of Health regularly takes steps to protect those most at risk from influenza by the provision of advice about who is most at risk from serious complications arising from the disease and who should therefore receive influenza vaccine. This year doctors were reminded during the summer of the need to plan their influenza vaccination campaign, which was launched in October.
The Department has also produced a leaflet called "What should I do about flu?" which provides information on how to cope with the disease. Copies were sent to all GPs and made available through Post Offices and copies are available in the Library. We have also produced a video advert about the leaflet, which was shown in post offices.