Still counting the cost of swine flu scare

May 7 2010 by Helen Rae, The Journal

“As soon as swine flu arrived, all NHS North East organisations worked quickly to identify and refine resources to deal with the logistics of managing swine flu. NHS services in the region coped very well with the additional pressures of swine flu, ensuring business as usual throughout the pandemic period and no compromise in the delivery of other services”.

A spokesperson for NHS North of Tyne, working on behalf of Newcastle and North Tyneside Primary Care Trusts and Northumberland Care Trust said: “We have continuous plans in place for a flu pandemic as part of our ongoing emergency preparedness and business continuity.

“We estimate the cost of managing the pandemic for the financial year 2009/10 was in the region of £800,000, across Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland, which in the main was off set by Department of Health funding for swine flu counter measures including anti-virals and vaccines.

“We have made no cuts to services to recoup any money spent on swine flu and have no plans to at this time. We have coped very well with the additional pressures of swine flu, ensuring business as usual throughout the pandemic period and no compromise in the delivery of other services.

“The swine flu vaccination campaign continues through spring and summer to protect vulnerable groups.”

A spokeswoman for NHS South of Tyne and Wear, which covers Gateshead Primary Care Trust, South Tyneside Primary Care Trust and Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust, said: “We constantly have to be prepared to meet the costs of emergency situations.

“During the exceptional circumstances of the flu pandemic, we did everything we could to ensure that local people were protected.

“The costs to our PCTs were met through efficient use of our resources during the year and from our reserves and no services were cut back as a result. There will not be a need to recover any of these costs in 2010/11.”