WHAT do Beijing chickens and English GPs have in common? Both are being blamed for a shortage of the flu jab.

The vaccine is no protection should avian flu found in Chinese poultry spark a human pandemic - but that hasn't stopped people asking for it just in case.

Meanwhile, Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt sparked fury by blaming prescription-happy GPs for expending supplies on the "worried well".

Of course it is important that doctors prioritise and give the flu vaccine first to those who really need it. But it is a fallacy to think GPs have been recklessly handing it out. They are under too much pressure from health trusts and their own budgets to allow fretful patients to override their good sense.

So why is Britain nearly out of the winter flu vaccine when we haven't even left November? Why are stocks worryingly low across North Yorkshire's health trusts? Because the Government was unprepared.

Despite calculating that 13.2 million people were in the at-risk category (not 11 million as officials had said earlier), the Department of Health only ordered 14 million doses. Add to that the needs of long-term carers, and that left a contingency of only 400,000 doses.

It simply isn't enough. Ministers must order a new batch and quickly, as the cold snap is predicted to worsen. Otherwise we could soon be witnessing another crisis like that in 2000, when York Hospital had to cancel operations because it was overwhelmed by a massive influx of flu cases.

Updated: 10:37 Thursday, November 24, 2005