# 755
Doctors critical of the UK's pandemic plan, one that shifts decision making responsibilities to local governments, aren't mincing words. This from the Guardian.
Experts slam government's flu outbreak plans
David Batty
Friday May 11, 2007
Guardian UnlimitedDoctors' leaders today warned that flaws in the government's plans to deal with a flu pandemic could cause chaos in the event of an outbreak.
Senior public health experts and family doctors said the plan to let local councils and NHS trusts decide how to deal with a pandemic could lead to some areas not getting drugs to treat those infected.
Dr Richard Coker, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the government's plan failed to address how scarce vaccines and anti-viral drugs would be shared out.
He raised concern that giving local authorities too much say over how to respond to a pandemic might lead to drugs being used up in the first area hit by an outbreak.
"If the pandemic is severe, then stocks of scarce resources will run out fairly quickly and my concern is that you shift resources around to areas where the epidemic is hitting hard," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"Say it hits London first and you move supplies from Manchester down to London and then the epidemic hits Manchester and Manchester has insufficient resources."
He also said guidance was needed about who should be prioritised for treatment in the event of a pandemic, given there would not be enough drugs for the whole population.
In an article in the latest edition of the British Medical Journal, Dr Coker said Britain's preparations for a pandemic were more advanced that those of many other European countries. But he said considerable improvements were still required.
His concerns about the government's preparedness are shared by the British Medical Association.
Dr Peter Holden, the BMA GPs committee's lead on pandemic flu planning, said it was "nonsense" to leave local councils to lead the response to a pandemic.
The GP said: "Infections obey no local administrative boundaries. All you will get is chaos if you have 150 different ways to approach an outbreak."
Dr Holden suggested that ministers were "petrified" by the prospect of an outbreak and wanted to "shift the balance of blame" if plans failed on to local councils.
"I'm finding the level of indecision within government quite frightening. No one is prepared to say who is in control. No one is prepared to take command because with command comes responsibility and accountability," he said.
