If you’re wading through all the swine flu coverage this morning, I’d recommend you take time to read the article by Dr John Crippen – the pseudonymous author of NHS Blog Doctor – in the Guardian. It hints at a disorganised response to the illness in the UK:
“Today is one of those days when family doctors want to retire to a darkened room and put an ice pack on their head. Over breakfast, I saw the newspaper headline: ‘Swine flu deaths spark worldwide health alert’.
I have not been ‘alerted’. None of my partners has been ‘alerted’ either. There is a general assumption that GPs will already have received definitive guidance from on high. No such guidance has arrived.”
Eventually, he had to put several calls in to get some guidance:
“I phoned the local infection control microbiologist.
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