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NHS staff 'panicked' over swine flu
Chris Laker19.06.09
Staff at an NHS walk-in centre "panicked" when confronted with a schoolgirl who may have been exposed to swine flu, it was claimed today.
The girl's mother, Sarah Baker, described how "chaos" greeted her attempts to obtain anti-flu medication for her daughter.
When the girl turned up at the walk-in centre, as instructed, she was rushed into isolation and then ordered "unequivocally" to leave the building, Mrs Baker alleged.
She said the public school her daughter attended in Buckinghamshire had confirmed its first case of swine flu on June 4. In addition there were six other "probable" cases.
Her daughter had returned home to London earlier that day.
Alerted by email, parents with children at home who might have been exposed to the virus were urged to contact their local GP for a course of the anti-flu drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu).
Mrs Baker said the first response of staff at her GP surgery in Hammersmith, west London, was a debate about whether her daughter should qualify for the medicine since she was a "temporary resident".
After making inquiries, a doctor told her the relevant authorities had refused permission, considering her daughter to be an "out of London" case.
This decision was eventually reversed after a call to the Buckinghamshire Health Protection Agency.
Mrs Baker was informed a district nurse would deliver the drug and take swabs from her daughter.
That plan was subsequently changed and she was told her daughter had instead to go in person to the nearest walk-in centre in Parsons Green.
Mrs Baker described what happened next in a letter published today in The Lancet medical journal.
She said: "My daughter duly obeyed and arrived at the walk-in centre where she asked for the oseltamivir and relevant tests. Panic ensued.
"She was swiftly taken to an isolation room and left there. About 20 minutes later, she was told unequivocally to leave the building."
Amid further confusion, the district nurse reiterated there would be no house call but the medication would be delivered to a "local collection point".
Mrs Baker called the GP who had been handling the case to describe "the shambles so far".
He insisted the drug would be delivered and told her not to respond to any more requests to collect it.
The district nurse then called to say the Tamiflu was ready for collection - at the same walk-in centre her daughter had been sent away from.
The nurse contradicted the doctor's instructions and "the conversation degenerated into an argument".
The GP then telephoned to say the medicine was, after all, behind the counter at Parsons Green.
Mrs Baker explained she would collect it as soon as was possible.
She went on: "In the event, my daughter has remained asymptomatic and the oseltamivir has not been required.
"However, we remain somewhat alarmed at the chaos of the response we encountered, to say the least."
An NHS London spokesman said: "It is the responsibility of all NHS organisations to be ready and able to deal with possible swine flu cases and the local Primary Care Trust is looking into the concerns raised.
"NHS London has issued clear guidance to all NHS staff in the capital to help them offer advice about swine flu and in the vast majority of cases this guidance is being followed to the letter."
A spokesman from Hammersmith and Fulham PCT said: "Clearly Mrs Baker was given some bad advice which led to this unfortunate situation, and we are looking into it.
"However, the correct advice to people with flu like symptoms is to stay at home. If antivirals are needed they will either be delivered or a 'flu friend' may be asked to collect them.
"If people who may have swine flu do go to GP surgeries, walk-in centres or hospitals the advice is to isolate them to reduce the risk of spreading the virus."
Reader views (8)
I am a nurse and I think the GP was wrong in this case and set up this whole experience, the nurse followed procedure which is to isolate, I can't comment on whether she actually panicked herself but isolating potential swine flue is not a panic reaction (she is also maintaining the ukcc code of conduct by acting in all patients best interests).
It is policy and procedure that people with potential swine flue stay at home and that a flue buddy collects their medication, this keeps us all safer from risk of exposure.
Enough said that this story ends up in the press as NHS Staff Panic - if she has made a complaint she will find that actually correct procedure was put in place by the nurse in the walk in who was accused of panicking , when actually it is someone having to deal with someone else's mis-take having being prepped by an ill informed GP.
I think the most confusing thing about the governments response' to swine flue is to still be having big festivals in the very boroughs that are swine flue hot spots when only a few weeks ago they were closing down schools, I know that this was a change of policy but in tower hamlets and hackney, we have had Shorditch Festival , Love Box ,Big festivals when at the same time if you are in a buisiness meeting according to the government you should stand a meter or more apart to prevent cross infection or is it that it is actually better to get it now as it might not be so kind when it mutates???
nurse jane of hackney
- Jane, London Borough Of Hackney
...Only NHS staff could put the PANIC into the PANdemIC!. Let's all get a grip on the reality of this situation, and deal with it in a quiet, calm and efficient manner. This incident highlights serious training issues among clinic staff.
- Joannie, London, England
At the entrance to the Parsons Green clinic there are several signs on prominent display warning people with flu symptoms not to enter the clinic. I attend the clinic regularly to have dressings changed and it is always busy - ideal conditions for spreading a highly contagious virus. Many of the patients are infants and the elderly who are highly vulnerable. I'd also add that the staff at the clinic are extremely helpful and professional.
- Mike, London UK
If, as indicated by the professionals, the flu virus is set to wreak havoc in the winter when the body's ability to deal with it are at their lowest, surely it makes sense for those with the virus to infect as many people as possible now.
- Seabee, London, UK
Harry, you have forgotten about vaccine. If this virus can be held back for the next six months, a vaccine will be available. At first they will immunise medical staff on the front line, other essential staff in essential services, and those for whom infection would be life-threatening. Thereafter, the general population.
Not doing all one can to prevent spread of this virus at this time would make it more likely that there will be a full-blown epidemic before any vaccine is available. That may yet happen anyway, but at least we'll have tried.
Although this virus is no more dangerous than ordinary flu, if one in three of the population catches it there will be many thousands of deaths. Availability of a vaccine before the epidemic will save many of those lives. I'd much rather not catch it thanks to a vaccine, even if all I avoid is a few days in bed feeling horrible.
- Nigel, London
What is this woman complaining about exactly? People with suspected swine flu SHOULD NOT then go into public places to pass it on - stay at home. Of course she is going to be asked to take her daughter away from a medical centre where they are a lot of immuno-compromised people who are at greater risk of DYING if in contact with swine flu. The medical staff did exactly what they should have, they removed the risk from a large group of people, and then contacted her mother to pick up the medicine - the mother who didn't have swine flu and was therefore low risk.
What on earth does she have to complain about when they were following protocol? Would she rather that several other people got seriously ill for the sake of her daughter being given the meds personally? Think about it!
- Busy Bee, Australia
So much for a caring NHS service. It really does show how ignorant many in the medical profession really are.
As the virus is currently mild I would be happy to get it now. If it were to mutate into something much more dangerous and potentially lethal, later this year or next. I would expect that having had exposure and developed anti-bodies to the milder form, one would have a degree of immunity. Therefore I believe that current Government policy to shield us from this virus is not appropriate.
- Harry H, London UK
This is frightening. I think a few heads should roll over this. I understand that the symptoms of swine ´flu are relatively mild, compared with other illnesses. How would the NHS cope if they got hit with a real killer disease, like the ebola virus, I wonder?
- Graham Rodhouse, Helmond, Netherlands
