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£600,000 spent to fight swine flu
ALMOST £4 was spent on each person in South Tyneside to tackle the swine flu pandemic, new figures have shown.
A survey of 107 Primary Care Trusts (PCT) revealed the cost of responding to the respiratory virus was 340,000 on average for every trust.
However, in South Tyneside, 600,000 was shelled out – almost 20 times more than Suffolk, which has a population size of 669,000 – four times bigger than the borough's.
A spokesman for NHS South of Tyne and Wear, which covers the borough along with Gateshead and Sunderland trusts – who also spent 600,000 each – said: "We have to be prepared to meet the costs of emergency situations.
"We did everything we could to ensure that people were protected."
At its peak last August, more than 2,500 people a week were falling ill with suspected cases of swine flu across the three PCT areas, and the borough was No9 on a list of worst- affected places in the UK.
Although the Department of Health (DoH), provided funding for antivirals and vaccines, PCTs had to cover the cost of a variety of other expenses.
It's thought one in six trusts have had to cut services to cope with the unexpected costs.
But bosses, at NHS South of Tyne and Wear say costs were met during an efficient use of resources and no cuts will be made.
A spokesman said: "The costs to our PCTs were met through efficient use of our resources during the year and from our reserves.
"No services were cut back as a result. There will not be a need to recover any of these costs in 2010/11.
"A large part of our swine flu activity focused on setting up and manning antiviral collection points (ACPs), predominantly by redeploying our own staff.
"Establishment of ACPs was part of our plans to respond to a flu pandemic.
"We followed national guidance in doing this and also in staffing them to ensure patient safety.
"Our aim was always to ensure they were accessible and met the needs of housebound and isolated patients as far as possible."
Other costs included arranging for the storage and distribution of vaccines.
Payments also had to be made to GPs for vaccinations, which came directly from the DoH, and publicising the swine flu jab.
The trust's spokesman added: "Throughout the pandemic, our staff rose to the challenge and we maintained safe, high-quality provision of core services at all times."
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Weather for Jarrow
Thursday 17 May 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 6 C to 9 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: South
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Light rain
Temperature: 5 C to 10 C
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