| Swine Flu? Is our NHS reactive when they should be proactive?
Posted: 7/14/2009 4:11:48 AM | I would be interested in other people thoughts on this topic?
I attended a meeting last week as I work in the healthcare market. During the meeting an excellent presentation was made about businesses having a crisis management plan in place to minimise the financial impact should the problem rise to epidemic level and affect your staff.
All well and good but where is the proactive stance rather than the reactive stance?
Where are the leaflets giving details of what it is, how to avoid it, what symptons to look for and what action to take if you spot them?
I know this information is available on the web but what about people who don't have web access? I have never had the leaflet that was promised two or three months ago and on the NHS websites that is the only thing available.
Shouldn't GP's and pharmacists (who see healthy people as well as sick people) be provided with something to distribute?
The NHS are expecting the problem to escalate in September and predict circa 100,000 cases a day to be diagnosed, so we have time surely to educate people?
From what I have been able to find out it is actually a mild form of flu, more like a heavy cold, and until recently the deaths we have seen have happened to people with other underlying health problems.
One of my staff has recently gone off with flu like symptons. She had been in contact with someone who has since had a confirmed diagnosis. She followed the procedure our company outlined months ago and contacted her doctor who prescribed Tamiflu as a precaution and signed her off. Her sick note says swine flu, but at no point have any tests been done to confirm the diagnosis that she actually has the H1N1 virus.
So no doubt she will be one of the statistically reported cases, but she has never actually been diagnosed, in fact she has never actually seen a doctor!
The original process of the NHS notifying everyone you have been in contact is being abandoned and even the voucher process for recieving Tamiflu is being reviewed, so where does that leave us, the general public?
Are we supposed to keep getting our healthcare advice from the media? Do you trust The Sun, The Express et al to give you the basic facts with no embellishments to provide a snazzy headline? | |
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| Swine Flu? Is our NHS reactive when they should be proactive?
Posted: 7/14/2009 4:22:36 AM |
Where are the leaflets giving details of what it is
It was pushed through every letterbox in the land a couple of months ago
Her sick note says swine flu, but at no point have any tests been done to confirm the diagnosis that she actually has the H1N1 virus.
So no doubt she will be one of the statistically reported cases, but she has never actually been diagnosed, in fact she has never actually seen a doctor!
How much NHS funding do you want to see spent just for the sake of statistical analysis?
The original process of the NHS notifying everyone you have been in contact is being abandoned and even the voucher process for recieving Tamiflu is being reviewed, so where does that leave us, the general public?
At this point that would mean notifying just about every single person in the planet! | |
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| Swine Flu? Is our NHS reactive when they should be proactive?
Posted: 7/14/2009 4:29:38 AM |
Imo It all comes down to being seen to be doing something and they have done this via a leaflet which basically tells you to use a hanky when you sneeze (a job already undertaken by our mothers when we were kids) !!
I personally would liked to have seen this wasted money going to the issue of thermometers in the worst hit areas like Birmingham/Worcs so people can test their temperatures and act immediately rather than second guessing which is how this swine flu has spread further a field.
A tv ad campaign telling people to check their temperatures would have been more productive too as a high temperature is one of the initial signs and could possibly have saved a few of those who have already died from this!! | |
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| Swine Flu? Is our NHS reactive when they should be proactive?
Posted: 7/14/2009 4:32:27 AM | It was pushed through every letterbox in the land a couple of months ago
Not through mine and I have spoken to others who never recieved it, I did state this in the OP
How much NHS funding do you want to see spent just for the sake of statistical analysis?
Absolutely none. I don't want endless statistics nor do I want the NHS to waste money on them.
What I do want is for the statistics to be reported accurately. The current statistic bandied about of 20,000 cases so far in the UK probably includes cases like the one I described above where no actual tests have been carried out to confirm the diagnosis and I am sorry, but in my book that is scaremongering. The figure given out last week at my meeting last week was 7447 confirmed cases.
AND what I would like is for a simple pamphlet to be handed out in pharmacies and supermarkets etc giving proper information, the cost of producing these is negligible when put in the context of the wastage that goes on in the NHS.
A tv ad campaign telling people to check their temperatures would have been more productive too as a high temperature is one of the initial signs and could possibly have saved a few of those who have already died from this!!
Exactly Mac, we aren't being proactive in helping to stop this at all, just reacting to it as it happens!
I am struggling to see how this is a redundant subject!!! | |
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| Swine Flu? Is our NHS reactive when they should be proactive?
Posted: 7/14/2009 4:32:50 AM |
(a job already undertaken by our mothers when we were kids) !!
If only all kids had a mum like your Mcforty!!..........I've had to teach quite a few children how to use a hankerchief when they first started school over the years. | |
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| Swine Flu? Is our NHS reactive when they should be proactive?
Posted: 7/14/2009 4:37:02 AM | | they tried to work on a vaccine for swine flu, apparently all efforts failed and we have been told to ride it through... swine flu is just like any other flu.. if you have it, stay inside for 14 days until the symptoms have gone..thats all you can do really. | |
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| Swine Flu? Is our NHS reactive when they should be proactive?
Posted: 7/14/2009 4:44:30 AM |
It was pushed through every letterbox in the land a couple of months ago
Not through mine, nor anybody else I know.
I think that a lot of the information that was proposed was proposed when swine flu looked to be the killer flu we have been expecting for some time. As the disease has progressed it has been shown to be a lot milder than was first thought. Deaths (of people with no underlying complications) have been rare, rather than the norm.
I'm told that at work there has been the first case (don't know whether it is actually a confirmed case or an assumed case) on my floor. My GP surgery now asks whether you have flu symptoms before agreeing an appointment.
I think the NHS were proactive in the beginning but now have moved to a reactive state since the threat level has dropped significantly. Should the second wave in the autumn prove to have mutated and be more severe, then they may return to a proactive position.
The other thing to consider is that since the disease is much milder than expected, it might be wise (and I say this from only a slight understanding of immunology, Variola is the one to give a definitive answer) for as many of us as possible to get an early mild dose in order to give us some protection later on. | |
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| Swine Flu? Is our NHS reactive when they should be proactive?
Posted: 7/14/2009 5:59:49 AM | Here is a link for anybody worried abut swine flu.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Swineflu/DG_177831
I am in the west mids with the highest cases of swine flu,no leaflet has arrived here.
I did see on the news I think that everyone in the uk should be vacinated by the end of 2010. | |
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| Swine Flu? Is our NHS reactive when they should be proactive?
Posted: 7/14/2009 6:05:48 AM | | It does seem strange that no one in the flu hotspot areas Mids, Worc etc seem to have recieved any literature through the post ..............Do you think the government are plotting to eradicate all life the other side of the Watford gap ???? | |
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*kath*
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Joined: 9/30/2008
Msg: 10 | |
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| Swine Flu? Is our NHS reactive when they should be proactive?
Posted: 7/14/2009 7:06:04 AM | * Beats Kath to a pulp for her cheek...
I live in Solihull which has now joined Sandwell, Coventry and Birmingham in being designated an "area of widespread community transmission".
Solihull has now joined Birmingham, Coventry and Sandwell as an "area of widespread community transmission".
The Health Protection agency has assessed Solihull as an 'area of widespread community transmission' ("ACT"). This means that the level of swine flu activity has increased so that a different approach to slowing the spread of disease is now required.
Cases can now be diagnosed on clinical grounds rather than depending on a laboratory test. In most cases the diagnosis is being made over the telephone by a GP or NHS Direct
GPs will prescribe Tamiflu as necessary. Tracing of contacts and using Tamiflu as a preventative measure is no longer required.
Schools will not be closed except in exceptional circumstances.
For most people, swine flu remains a milder illness than was previously thought and most people can help themselves by taking over-the-counter remedies. Aspirin should not be given to under 16s.
People in these high risk groups should seek medical advice as soon as they notice swine flu symptoms: those with long-term lung, kidney, neurological, liver or heart disease; children under five; people over 65; those with diabetes mellitus; the immunosuppressed (whether caused by disease or treatment); patients who have had drug treatment for asthma within the past three years; and pregnant women.
If anyone is worried in any way they should go online and check their symptoms on http://www.nhs.uk/, call NHS Direct (0845 46 47) or call the Swine Flu information line on 0800 1 513 513. If they are still concerned, they should then call their GP, who can provide advice over the phone.
The message for everyone is: If you have flu symptoms, stay at home and limit contact. If you do not have symptoms, carry on as normal.
The symptoms of flu are:
A high temperature and feverishness plus two or more of these symptoms:
cough,
sore throat,
runny nose,
limb or joint pain,
headache,
vomiting or
diarrhoea.
Media Release issued by Solihull NHS Care Trust. For further information please contact the Communications Team on 0121 712 8308.
No pamphlet came through my door, nor the doors of anyone I know.... The only literature pertaining to Swine flu that I have received has come from my son's secondary school...
Other than that, we get a regular, 'record number of new cases of swine flu diagnosed' update on the local news and very little else... | |
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| Swine Flu? Is our NHS reactive when they should be proactive?
Posted: 7/14/2009 7:13:03 AM | A tv ad campaign telling people to check their temperatures would have been more productive too as a high temperature is one of the initial signs and could possibly have saved a few of those who have already died from this!!
Well, no much help if the hospital is going to turn you down ( like I heard happened yesterday with a boy who was with temperature and very badly) and also with the little girl who died in London ( wrongly diagnosed with tonsillitis )
I heard a mum with a child from a highly infected class ( 20 cases in the class) saying that her son doesn't have swine flu even he has high temperature and sore throat and is poorly because she called NHS helpline and they told her it is the ordinary flu, not swine flu.
Furthermore, if you or your child have symptoms you are advised to call an automated recorded 0800 number, no human being on other side, when you call NHS direct they tell you only the worst cases are spoken with, when you go to emergency they turn you down after waiting for 6 hours in their waiting room, when you call your GP they advise you to call NHS direct.. so all goes in a circle.
I just feel so sorry for the parents in highly infected areas as the whole system seems to be in a mess.
Today there is a report in one of the daily papers that the GPs are complaining to the house of commons about the bad organisation of the flu crisis. | |
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| Swine Flu? Is our NHS reactive when they should be proactive?
Posted: 7/14/2009 7:30:27 AM | Deaths (of people with no underlying complications) have been rare
Flu spread is an exponential function, we are in the very beginning. Number of deaths is higher with number of infected cases, and the infection rate is shown to be 5 times higher than the normal flu ( this is the latest news from the flu investigation)
In US so far there is 243 deaths and 696 deaths worldwide, more deaths are expected in UK too, this is a flu pandemic we are talking about so the lowest rate of deaths still kills too many people i.e at least a million people worldwide. | |
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| Swine Flu? Is our NHS reactive when they should be proactive?
Posted: 7/14/2009 7:34:12 AM | | As redditch was one of the first hit i was expecting a bigger impact off the government, i wont hold my breath lol then again i look around the town and can see why its spread easily. Gangs of mothers crowded into maccys with there kids, one sneeze and all infected. As mac said how many kids are taught to sneeze into bog roll or wash hands regular? Most redditch people are beyond help with out swine flu never mind with! | |
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*kath*
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Joined: 9/30/2008
Msg: 16 | |
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| Swine Flu? Is our NHS reactive when they should be proactive?
Posted: 7/14/2009 8:15:29 AM | Never had a leaflet either ... wonder what happened to them all?
My friend has swine flu, she had a sore throat for about a week and by Saturday she was freezing cold with soaring temperature (if that makes sense), the doctor came out, said she had swine flu and said to just drink lots of water, take paracetamol and rest. She's moaning that he didn't give her antibiotics but its a virus so its pointless. She has been given tamiflu though I'm not sure what that is?
The doctor told her that there were that many cases now that they aren't testing for it anymore and the only time they are concerned is when the patient has underlying health issues particularly asthma, heart problems or are prone to chest infections/pneumonia.
I think its a lot of over-reaction, its just flu! Flu kills hundreds of people in this country every winter anyway, this is just a different strain of it but the media has hyped this up so much that some people seem to think its an automatic death sentence if you catch it | |
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| Swine Flu? Is our NHS reactive when they should be proactive?
Posted: 7/14/2009 8:15:52 AM |
My youngest came home from school with the dreaded "unconfirmed cases of pupils" letter today.
We sent this home with the kids on Monday of last week and to be honest I expected a bit of an explosion of cases with half the school off by now but it hasn't happened yet. | |
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| Swine Flu? Is our NHS reactive when they should be proactive?
Posted: 7/14/2009 8:35:25 AM |
I just think back to the Bird Flu panic ... and after all the publicity and scaremongering I think there was one dead swan at the end of it all
Bird flu was hilarious. People were actually crossing the street to avoid me just because i'd got a few chickens. | |
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| Swine Flu? Is our NHS reactive when they should be proactive?
Posted: 7/14/2009 8:42:39 AM |
Bird flu was hilarious. People were actually crossing the street to avoid me just because i'd got a few chickens.
Im the same now, i drink some wine and sneeze and people get wine flu and head straight to the doctor | |
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| Swine Flu? Is our NHS reactive when they should be proactive?
Posted: 7/14/2009 8:51:33 AM | In most cases the diagnosis is being made over the telephone by a GP or NHS Direct
Which kind of backs up my point. The statistics that are being screamed at us from the headlines each day are at best guesswork. How in god's name can you make a diagnosis over the phone.
I heard a mum with a child from a highly infected class ( 20 cases in the class) saying that her son doesn't have swine flu even he has high temperature and sore throat and is poorly because she called NHS helpline and they told her it is the ordinary flu, not swine flu.
Again, how can they differentiate between different types of flu over the phone. The young girl that died was misdiagnosed, so how sure can we be that the figures reported are accurate.
I think its a lot of over-reaction, its just flu!
To a large degree I agree with this, and I am not having a go at the other posters whom I have quoted, I think their comments highlight how badly this is being handled. We pay millions into the NHS every year and I just think we deserve better.
In 2005 the government introduced a new contract for pharmacies and we have seen countless changes to GP's contracts etc. The whole future thinking of the NHS is about healthcare advice, helping people take responsibility for their own health, sign posting people to advice on how to stay healthy and a patient focussed NHS, yet when we have an incident like bird flu or swine flu we (and by we I mean the government) appear to be woefully prepared to actually cope with it and it is managed in such a way that leads to assumptions, panic and mayhem. | |
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| Swine Flu? Is our NHS reactive when they should be proactive?
Posted: 7/14/2009 9:01:48 AM | Well is that not the case with any new strain of a highly mutatgenic virus?, how can you plan for something that mutates that quickly and crosses species?, what kind of plan can be created to combat that?. Given they can track the virus and create a antibiotic and get it into mass production so as to create a UK 30 million does incilation is not actually bad going, i dont see anyone else doing better.
Of course i dont see it as a threat only a potential one that has not really resulted in any meanigfull numbers of deaths, unlike say driving a motorbike.
Its not unlike the MMR jab of a few years ago, the whole thing is badly handeled in the media. | |
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| Swine Flu? Is our NHS reactive when they should be proactive?
Posted: 7/14/2009 9:03:36 AM | I haven't had a leaflet either!
I heard somewhere a couple of days ago that its like a mild version of the flu, so I'd be interested to find out how we know which one we have.
My son has a bit of a cold at the moment and I'm umming and ahhing about whether to take him out of school or not, as general consensus seems to be keep kids home "just in case".
I suggested to him yesterday that he may have to stay off school and explained why and he said he thinks its just being blown out of all proportion and didn't want to take the time off for a bit of the sniffles.
Do I disrupt him just in case, or do I send him in anyway?
I'm confused  | |
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