Doctors' leaders issue swine flu guidance for GP practices - 09 Dec 09
A second edition of Pandemic Influenza: Guidance for GP practices, specifically for swine flu (H1N1), has today (Wednesday 9 December 2009) been issued by the BMA’s General Practitioners Committee (GPC) and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP).
The original guidance, published in January 2009, was generic and based on the assumptions that the illness would in many cases be severe and probably be avian in origin. It was designed to help General Practice plan for the possibility of having to work during a severe pandemic. In June 2009 the World Health Organisation declared a world H1N1 ‘flu pandemic. Since then there have been a significant number of cases in the UK.
This new edition of the guidance aims to be a comprehensive resource for GPs and practice managers, where they can find everything they need to know about the latest evidence and planning for further waves of H1N1.
Dr Peter Holden, GPC Negotiator and the BMA’s Pandemic Flu lead, said:
“We have learned a lot from our experience of the first wave of swine flu and have had time to reflect and consider how things could be done in a different way. H1N1 has behaved very differently to the avian flu that we had originally planned for and that’s why we felt it was important to update this guidance. There is a huge amount of information out there for practices and this brings it all together. We hope GPs and their teams find it useful.”
Dr Maureen Baker, pandemic flu lead at the RCGP, said:
“The response from GPs and practices to the challenges from dealing with swine flu has been magnificent. This resource should act as a comprehensive manual for practices to support them throughout the duration of the outbreak.”
The first edition has been updated to reflect the current situation so each new chapter contains new information, however the main areas of new information are:
- Chapter 2: H1N1 clinical presentation
- Chapter 6: Caring for the general public
- Chapter 7: Infection control
- Chapter 10: Prescribing issues
- Chapter 12: H1N1 Vaccines
Note
To view the guidance click here: http://www.bma.org.uk/health_promotion_ethics/influenza/panflugp/panfluguide.jsp
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