Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Lord Crickhowell (Conservative). It was answered on Wednesday, 29 April 2009.

Swine Flu

Question: My Lords, the Science and Technology Committee has also been told by the department that primary care trusts in England are arranging 3,221 collection points for antivirals, yet we have seen a large number of reports in the press in the past couple of days that GPs do not seem to be fully aware of the plans. In view of the fact that antivirals should be given, wherever possible, within 48 hours of the symptoms becoming clear, can the Minister assure us that urgent steps are now being taken to ensure that in all PCTs the information is available to GPs?

Answer: My Lords, these stockpiles will be in every PCT and we have plans in which we will let every general practitioner know where the stockpile and the distribution sites are. That announcement will be made in due course, as I highlighted earlier.

Secondary information