Health system may not be up to the challenge of a swine flu pandemic

The ability of the system to cope with a large-scale outbreak of swine flu must be in serious doubt given the problems it has in coping with demand for normal health services. Doctors and nurses will be put under severe stress to cope and will have to protect themselves from contracting the illness as well, not just for their own sake but so they don’t spread it further.

IF the Government manages to get just one thing right during the rest of the year, then let’s hope it is in the management of the anticipated largeiscale outbreak of the swine flu.

The possibilities are scary. The Department of Health has estimated that one million people in this country could be affected by an outbreak of the virus before the end of the year.