Swine flu site struggles to stay up The government's swine flu information website and symptom checker struggled to deal with demand last night as anxious snifflers, hypochondriacs and fraudsters deluged the site. The National Pandemic Flu Service - a phone line and a website - was down for much of yesterday after its afternoon launch with many Reg readers …
This was bound to happen. As a nation we seem to be drawn to whichever bandwagon plays the loudest music, whether it be health scares, misbehaving radio presenters or any other type of fad. The media took steps to be sure we're all aware of Swine Flu, but somewhere along the way fell on the 'Over-Sensationalise' button and now we seem to be in a state of panic. Remember meningitis? Ten years ago it was all the rage. Still, last year there were around 3000 cases, resulting in 300 deaths*, but virtually no media coverage. Technically this is still bigger news that Swine Flu. Just not as fashionable.
*Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2005/oct/17/highereducation.health
Trying to find a local collection point in Oxfordshire for a friend, I looked on the https://www.pandemicflu.direct.gov.uk/CollectionPoints.aspx for the closest Anitviral Collection Point
It wasn't on the list!
However there are many entries for Gloucestershire, also known as:
Gloucestershire, Gloucestertshire. That county can also be found in the S. West and South West.
Still no sign of Oxfordshire. I am looking in England, right?
Well, Little Bobby Tables (http://xkcd.com/327/) might be OK but anyone with HTML tags in their name will have trouble.
Turn off Javascript and notice they don't handle System.Web.HttpRequestValidationException (default error page shows).
Also note that the 2nd Yes/No question has no server-side validation. Not the worst thing ever perhaps, until you realise that answering 'YES' would lead to a diagnosis of 'seriously ill, call 999' - it's not one you can afford to miss!
Anon just in case...
Looking at the screen shot, it's requesting a 'health service number' if you are a UK resident, I have no idea what my health service number is, or that I even had one. Am I the only person in this situation?
So does this mean that if I get swine flu or ( 'The piggy wiggy sniffles' as on of my friends called it) I can't use this service? If so I guess I'll still have to phone the doctor's to get the number and waste their time. Though I guess if I get it I'll take 2 paracetamol and watch Jeremy Kyle thus ensure I don't stay off ill too long as unless you are unlucky it doesn't seem that bad.
I work in the NHS and the system is a joke.
Finding a place has a number of issues, Manchester isn't in greater manchester, two of our towns don't exist so can't be found to see if we have collection points.
Greater Manchester included wigan (and none of the actual 10 manchester PCT areas)
And lancashire which included manchester has sites that were in ormskirk and skelmersdale, which are nearer merseyside.
As one responsible to get staff up and running, I was told 18 minutes before the system went live and had that time to train 40 people on three sites 20 miles apart. That is how much advance warning the NHS had.
AND one of our sites is a tesco pharmacy that doesn't have internet access, so can't use it anyway.
It doesn't supoprt non english speakers and anyone that says yes to a condition you have to visit a GP anyway. Which currently use either a voucher, a letter of authorisation or a prescription which all need to be recorded anyway.
It doesn't link to a GP Pc records, so we have to make notes anyway, thus increasing time. And in the background the Department of Health is asking for two sets of data that the Online system can't provide an the media aren't told about. So our volunteers (we can't afford to pay them) have to fill in two computer systems and two spreadsheets for everyone that walks in the door.
Badly thought out, vastly over priced, too late in the day and managed badly.
**Insert as many swear words as you want** 'ing health department.
Anon as I am not allowed to openly disgrace the DH
Apparently the experienced staff on the National Pandemic Flus Staff have been trained for a minimum of three hours. I feel safer already.
---
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Pandemic-flu/Pages/QA.aspx#long
How well trained are the Flu Service staff?
Experienced call operators have been trained for a minimum of three hours.
From what I learned (off Wikipedia obviously), the early symptoms of swine 'flu appear to be identical to those for every pathogen from the common cold to Ebola fever. So if the symptoms go in three days it was a cold, if you're dead in three days it was Ebola; somewhere in between? probably 'flu, or mumps, or gout...
Having checked the website for local Antiviral Collection Points, I am saddened and dismayed at the way the information on the locations has been set up, as it's all a mish mash and varyingly confusing at best.
In addition to the fact that the local collection points are only open Mon-Fri, between the hours of 9-5. Should I assume that Swine Flu does not occur at weekend and evenings? Or should I be hoping that if myself or my family were to incur symptons of Swine Flu, that it happens during the day, so that there is easy access to medication?
Having noticed this, I am about to contact my local MP Andrew Gywwne, and hopefully he will pick up on this and help to rectify such matters, afterall he knows first hand what it is like to have swine flu, as he was sent home from Parliment with the virus recently.
At least one good thing has come out of the panic. Firm medical advice not to attend a doctor's surgery and risk infecting other people there.
This is a common sense item with a great many complaints. An idea that seems to have been completely over the heads of most GPs for decades.
I've lost count of the times when - with the possibility that I had something infectious - I've had to say over the phone to a receptionist, or even a doctor, "Yes I CAN attend the surgery - but only if you want everyone else in the waiting room to catch the same thing! DUH!!!"
In fact I can think of few more potentially hazardous environments than the average GP or hospital waiting room. I do my very best to stay out of them, swine flu or no.
Get the media to run stories about how shops are running out of hand wipes / alcohol disinfectants and tissues. Create the (not incorrect) impression that these things will help keep you well.
"99.999% of people using tissues don't get Swine Flu" "Boots warn of hand wipe shortage!!!"
Tell people what to do and they ignore you. Make them think they are missing out... now that's a different matter! ;)
...this is a service for England. In the mean time, those of us in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can sniffle away and hope for the best, even though it'll come to nothing. Wouldn't it be best for the NHS to build something for the whole country rather than paying for the same thing 4 times when each constituent country's health board builds one themselves.
As a UK citizen I've found it interesting that flu problems mainly affect people in two ways.
You get a fever and your heart races so you may get hit with a heart attack if in bad health or over 40.
Or you get a secondary bacterial infection like pneumonia which settles in your lungs because you're not breathing deeply and the lungs becomes a lovely wet nest for Streptococcus pneumoniae.
Seemingly due to the latest research in older people who go into hospital and get pneumonia, this is due to your mouth being a damn good source for these bacteria, so daily brushing with a good antibacterial mouthwash is the order of the day.
I'm told it'll also reduce the risk of Heart disease. Why didn't my Mum tell me this to get me to brush my teeth when I was younger? ;-)
I'm amazed that shops look at me with bafflement as I ask them what measures they do to prevent their staff or the customers getting infections.
My local library get in hundreds of books, DVDs, etc every day, my Optician passes glasses and other equipment around to dozens of people a day and yet they don't even bother to clean the equipment between customers.
Gee, no wonder the Flu passes around so quickly.
Face masks don't work. They're for stopping people passing on their infection not preventing you from getting it!
If you can get yourself the Streptococcus injection (it lasts 10 years seemingly) from your local health centre. It's free to most people and it'll help prevent you getting serious pneumonia should you get the Flu. Odd that the government isn't promoting this.
Lastly I've got myself a cheap silver based cloth from Tesco, silver kills bacteria and some viruses and I'm prepared to start carrying it around to clean surfaces I have to touch in public Toilets.
Maybe I when I go shopping I should get the staff to drop coins into it and clean them that way?
I may sound a little paranoid, but the Swine flu is starting to develop a resistance to the Tamiflu drug and Winter is coming...
>> And lancashire which included manchester has sites that were in ormskirk and skelmersdale, which are nearer merseyside.
I don't quite get what you mean. You said, Lancashire has sites that are in Ormskirk and Skelmersdale (i.e. in the west of Lancashire) which are nearer to Merseyside - nearer to Merseyside than where? Manchester? What's your point, they're still in Lancashire.
A couple of weeks ago I was in a shop, one publicised by a certain J.O., when the be-gloved checkout lady coughed into said glove and continued to handle food etc with said glove.
I felt decidedly unwell for several hours after.
But I'm not dead yet.
However my point is that if we're all going to get it we may as well get it in the summer when we normally don't get flu thus leaving the winter free for the incubation of the good old traditional illnesses we have grown to love so.
You can't have it both ways matey - if you want jurisdiction over your own health service so you can have free prescriptions,separate NICE decisions etc then you have jurisdiction over your own swine flu prevention/treatment measures!
I used the site on friday as I'd had a cold for days and had a fever, headache and a sore throat, as Mike Richards pointed out, to that site that meant I had swine flu. After all the hype about this site (advised by doctors, etc) I would've expected that it somehow performed decent differential diagnosis. Most of the questions pertain to whether you're dying of meningitis or are in a high risk group - only one question isolates the swine flu symptoms, and another seems to be attempting differential diagnosis (do you have brown phlegm - cue forceably coughing up into a tissue to find out).
What people need to get are thermometers as the severity of the fever seems to be the crux of the whole thing, and unfortunately it's not something the website can ask you as I guess only those with young children have thermometers suitable for this around. But if what I've got is swine flu then it's really not that bad - a day in bed with ibuprofen and paracetamol on alternation, and a bit longer on the sofa watching boxed sets.
I have our "Healthline" 0800 number for calling in the event of the dreaded swine flu hitting me or wife.
Right next to my computer .
Everything seems under control around here, and no sign of the population getting over exited, we just act rationally and prepare for contingencies .
Have yet to see anyone wearing a mask,and the GP I visit has not been overwhelmed by anxious mums
Regarding the post by zerofool2005,I called up the Ambulance a while back when she injured her knee, and was asked is she conscious and breathing.
Well must go get some sleep , vital to have enough to get adequate sack time for good health.
We are in the Winter here so we should get more flu than you . We did get off to an early start about 3 months ago when students brought the virus back from Mexico.
Night,night , sleep tight.
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