GPs told to isolate flu patients as fears grow of a pandemic

DOCTORS were today told to set up waiting rooms to separate patients with flu from those not infected.

Guidance was issued by health experts to help GPs cope with a flu crisis as they were warned the NHS would be put under "unprecedented pressure" if a pandemic broke out. The British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners said doctors' surgeries will be "stretched beyond current limits" and said practices must draw up emergency plans to cope with a pandemic by the end of March.

Infected patients as well as doctors will be told to wear face masks under the first guidance of its kind ever issued to GPs. Doctors were told to advise patients to draw up a list of "flu friends" who can collect medication for them if they get the virus.

Doctors will also be told to "buddy up" with other practices for the first time to share resources and staff. It is an unprecedented move for GPs who currently operate as independent businesses with individual incomes.

The guidelines come as the Health Service faces a record winter season for cases of flu and winter bugs.

The BMA and the RCGP predict that in a pandemic the average GP practice will see 186 extra cases of flu a week.

Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the BMA's GP committee, said a pandemic would be a major health emergency and doctors would have to completely change their approach.

The guidance is backed by the Government. The message from ministers to those affected during a flu pandemic will be to stay at home.

A pandemic flu 24-hour hotline will be set up, which will also authorise vaccines instead of doctors.

The last major flu outbreak where there was no known vaccine was in 1968 when more than a million died.