Expert warns of flu plan flaws

A Department of Health consultation process on the updating of plans drawn up in 2005 is due to be completed within the next few days.

But Dr Richard Coker, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, warned that the updated document failed to address key issues such as how scarce vaccines and anti-viral drugs will be shared out.

And he said it put too much onus on local authorities and health service bosses to decide how to respond to a pandemic, rather than giving explicit instructions on a national level. He raised concern that this might lead to resources and drugs being ineffectively distributed around the country, and to different areas failing to learn from one another's experiences.

Dr Coker said there was no doubt among healthcare experts that Britain would be hit by a large-scale outbreak of flu, which could kill as many as 750,000 people.

Britain's preparations were more advanced that those of many other European countries, he said. But he used an article in the British Medical Journal to call for improvements to be made to meet his concerns.

Dr Coker told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that the new Department of Health document was "a considerable improvement on what was previously a pretty good plan".

But he added: "There are a lot of strengths to it, but there are some real challenges as well."

Dr Coker said he did not think it was practical to assume that everyone would have equal access to drugs, as it would be important to ensure that key healthcare staff were vaccinated, in order to avoid them falling victim to the disease they are fighting.

Failure to develop an explicit national scheme for distribution of drugs could mean that they were used up in the area where the epidemic hits first, leaving other areas short, he warned.