Swine Flu in Salford
I had a long conversation with one of the lead officers at the council who’s coordinating the council’s response to Swine Flu. There have now been six cases of in Seedley Primary School and up to sixty cases across Greater Manchester (see here for more details). I wanted to make sure that the council is properly prepared and doing everything it can for residents; it also has some legal requirements that I wanted make sure it was following. I’ve been very pleased to hear how much effort Salford Council officers are putting in to staying on top of things and co-ordinating actions between Greater Manchester, the local health organisations, businesses, schools and the voluntary sector (St. Johns Ambulance etc).
Currently Salford seems to be coping well, but it’s important that people follow the advice given. One problem we’ve already had is with the special helplines not being set up by the government early enough and then with the ‘worried well’ residents phoning in such numbers that the system became overloaded. Communications in the small areas where there have been cases identified are now much better and responses have been good.
If you would like to know what precautions to take and find out what’s happening in schools then the council has some web pages here: http://www.salford.gov.uk/living/health/healthservices/illhealth/nid/swineflu.htm
5:53 pm on July 3rd, 2009
You know this pig flu will Muslims be offended by it
7:25 am on July 4th, 2009
No. Next. Do you have any hilarious BNP jokes about Jews to share with us now?
4:42 pm on July 4th, 2009
I was actually really concerned when I heard that Seedley Primary School (located at the bottom of my road) had confirmed a case of Swine Flu amongst one of it’s pupils, but this appears to be something that we in Salford are very well prepared for.
At our last community committee meeting we were briefed by a representative from Salford Primary Care Trust who reported on what measures were being taken to protect residents and what we can do ourselves (catch it, bin it, kill it).
I’m confident Salford are as prepared as we can be, but we must ensure we continue to re-evaluate the situation as the pandemic spreads.
5:47 pm on July 4th, 2009
Quite right Steve. The current wave is likely to peak during the school holidays, so hopefully the risk to kids will be lowered. It’s the winter months that I’m most worried about.