The problem is there is more than one strain – and you can be hit a second time

GP SURGERIES are at the coal face dealing with the rise in flu cases, and we can only expect the numbers affected to increase in the coming weeks.

I came in early at 7.45am. We turn off the answering machine at 8am and the phone has been ringing out since then.

Cases of flu began to rise in recent weeks. From December 14, you could see it in the practice. You could also see it in the number of out-of-hours calls. We are at the start of this outbreak.

There are three doctors in this practice. It is not possible to fulfil all the appointments coming in via a face-to-face consultation. But we have put a system in place.

One doctor has gone out on nursing home calls. There is definitely evidence of lots of influenza around in the nursing homes. Thankfully the vast majority of our patients in nursing homes were vaccinated some months ago after they gave consent or their families did so on their behalf. So hopefully they are more greatly protected.

We have used our practice nurse and a GP to triage calls to give advice. You have concerned elderly people who haven’t had the flu vaccine, and we are ensuring they get it.

The problem with the influenza is there is more than one strain, and you can be hit a second time unfortunately. You will have people who say they had the flu so they don’t need the vaccine, but they are equally vulnerable to getting a different version again, so people have suffered influenza illness who have not been vaccinated and are within the at-risk groups that need to be vaccinated.

A lot of it comes down to planning. It is what we do every year. There is a good surveillance system provided by the Irish College of General Practitioners and the HSE, and we can access notifications to see what the prevalence of the flu is. We would have done that first thing this morning. We have looked at what is hitting the practices, to make sure we are up to date. In high-risk patients, we will have to use certain treatments for those people.

We will be flat out until 6.30pm this evening, and then D-Doc, the out-of-hours service will kick in. They were inundated over the Christmas period too.

We will get an email first thing in the morning in relation to how many patients were seen by D-Doc, and we have to review them to make sure nobody needs a further review.

We are looking for specifically isolated elderly patients, or patients with chronic illnesses and those in nursing homes.

The flu is having an impact across the health service, with emergency departments and wards inundated. One colleague working within the hospital sector described it as bedlam.

How we deal with cases depends on a number of factors. Some people will get superimposed infections – they get a bacterial chest infection on top of a viral chest infection. They can end up seriously sick in hospital.

The H3N2 flu or ‘Aussie flu’ as it is being referred to and the B1 strains are both circulating, and they are both quite severe to elderly people. Both of those are within the vaccine that is the prescribed vaccine we are giving.

My advice is it is not too late to get the vaccine and I would strongly urge people to do so.

One colleague working within the hospital sector described it as bedlam