Suspected swine flu victims treated at York Hospital (From York Press)

Suspected swine flu victims treated at York Hospital

9:32am Tuesday 21st July 2009 in Swine flu

YORK Hospital has started treating suspected victims of swine flu as the pandemic worsens in the city.

The York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said today it was treating a “number of patients who are clinically presumed to have swine flu,” but did not say whether any were in critical care.

A spokeswoman said: “They are being treated in isolation in line with our operational flu plans.”

She said the hospital currently had no problems with staff being affected by the illness.

The news came as Health Secretary Andy Burnham revealed there were now 652 people in hospital nationwide, including 53 in critical care, with 55,000 new cases of swine flu reported last week.

The Minister also confirmed that a National Pandemic Flu Service would be launched later this week in England “subject to testing”.

It woukd offer telephone and online help to take pressure off GPs and other frontline health services.

He told the Commons it would be accompanied by a “major public information campaign” and, after the launch, people would no longer need to ring their GP.

“They can either answer questions on-line, via the new website, or ring the call centre service, where trained staff will be able to assess them over the phone.”