Flu website is overwhelmed in minutes
THE DIY swine flu prescription service was launched yesterday – but its website was overwhelmed within minutes by people desperate to get hold of Tamiflu.
The sheer number of people trying to access the website caused it to grind to a halt shortly after it went live.
People clicking on the symptom checker to get their illness assessed were told: “Welcome to the National Pandemic Flu Service. The Service is currently very busy and cannot deal with your request at this time. Please try again in a little while.”
It will be a major embarrassment for the Government which has been forced to bring forward the launch of the service from autumn to ease unprecedented pressure on the NHS since the pandemic escalated earlier this month.
And it comes amid growing fears about the telephone hotline being manned by untrained staff.
Critics have slammed the system as being wide open to abuse from the “worried well” who will quickly work out how to dupe the system to get their hands on Tamiflu to stockpile in case they develop the virus for real.
Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson said he suspected the problems with the website were caused by people logging on out of curiosity. He added: “It’s not surprising that it has generated a very heavy public response but it will calm down.”
The National Pandemic Flu Service’s new dedicated website is direct.gov.uk/pandemicflu. The hotline numbers are 0800 1 513 100 or 0800 1 513 200. People can use the service to check their symptoms and ask for Tamiflu.