Scotland

The rate of patients seeing their GP with suspected flu has doubled in a week in Scotland as cases of the H1N1 virus grow, figures showed yesterday. Health Protection Scotland (HPS) revealed that the number of people going to their doctor with flu-like symptoms leapt from 15 to 32 per 100,000 people by the end of last week.

Very few cases of flu are normally seen during the summer months, leading experts to believe the jump in GP visits is down to increased cases of the H1N1 virus circulating. Yesterday, a further 53 cases of swine flu were confirmed by labs in Scotland, taking the total number to 739.

A further 306 cases were also confirmed in England. More than 3,000 cases have now been diagnosed across the UK. Rates of flu-like illness are based on figures from GP "spotter" practices covering around 8 per cent of the Scottish population. Dr Martin Donaghy, medical director of HPS, said it was hard to say how many cases of flu would normally be expected during the summer.

"We don't continue collecting the data over the summer months, so we've got no benchmark to compare routinely because flu virtually disappears. "But because of the swine flu situation, we have continued the survey and are picking up these rates now." He said it was difficult to know what would happen next in terms of flu rates. "Usually in summer, flu will go but this is an unusual event."

Dr Donaghy said they would continue to use the GP tracker system from now until next summer, and maybe beyond. The majority of new cases diagnosed in Scotland yesterday – 47 – were in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde region. Four people with the virus are still being treated in hospital. The Scottish Government also revealed that the primary-two class at St Helen's Primary School in Condorrat had been told to stay at home after two pupils were confirmed with the virus.

Yesterday it also emerged that hospitals in the UK's worst affected swine flu region in the West Midlands have set up assessment bays to ease the strain on A&E departments after visits by people worried they may have the virus leapt by some 25 per cent. In Scotland, Dr Donaghy said that guidance given to GPs and hospitals also advised separating patients with flu symptoms from other patients as far as possible.

Doctors have urged patients who think they have flu not to just turn up at surgeries, while some GPs have notices on practice doors telling people to alert staff if they might have flu so they can be kept away from other patients. "The basis of all infection control is to separate out 'clean from dirty'. If people have infection, that is good practice anyway," Dr Donaghy said. It was also possible patients turning up to hospital with flu-like symptoms would be asked to wait elsewhere to other people.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which has seen the largest number of confirmed cases in Scotland, said it had planned to respond to pandemic flu. "These include plans to implement a package of appropriate infection-control measures designed to limit the spread of the virus," a spokeswoman said. "These measures include nursing flu cases apart from other patients in line with national guidance."

Source: The Scotsman
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