RURAL AREAS POORLY PROTECTED AGAINST SWINE FLU?
August 19, 2009 10:39 AM
Despite the current reduction on Swine flu cases the NHS is bracing itself for a second more destructive wave of the virus later in the year.
Nick Harvey notes, "Despite the NHS preparations I am concerned that rural areas such as North Devon are poorly served with antiviral collection points. The latest NHS figures show that while Plymouth has 48 and Torbay 7 the rest of Devon is served by just 11. Cornwall has a total of 80 - in fact all the other SW counties are better served than Devon."
"The Government intends to vaccinate over 11 million people and plans for the immunisation programme are being finalised to begin in the autumn once it has been licensed by the European Medicines Agency.
"However, while NHS argues that these collection points vary according to demand I would hope that surge provision is being made for rural areas where we have many elderly who are at risk."
For more information see:
http://www.nhs.uk/alertsemergencies/pages/pandemicflualert.aspx
What would you like to do next?
-
Subscribe for updates
Follow the party's activity on...
- Twitter:
- Liberal Democrats
- Facebook:
- Liberal Democrats
- YouTube:
- Liberal Democrats