The course will present doctors with mock cases of patients who might turn up at their surgery, including a holidaymaker returning from Thailand with flu-like symptoms and a patient worried by the recent media coverage on bird flu asking to be vaccinated. GPs must correctly diagnose each patient and decide on a course of action including appropriate treatment, whether they should be referred to hospital or told to stay at home and whether to alert the local health protection unit.
Professor Pat Troop, Chief Executive of The Health Protection Agency said: “The web is an ideal way to provide basic information about the types of symptoms our health professionals need to be looking out for. It also provides information on the potential impact of a flu pandemic and the national contingency plans which are in place to respond. It will also help local health providers to understand what should be included in their local contingency plans. I feel sure it will be helpful to everyone with an interest in protecting the health of the public from the effects of a flu pandemic.”
She added, "GPs are often the first point of contact for patients who have flu-like symptoms or who are concerned about flu. That is why it is vital that they have the confidence and information to address patients' concerns about bird and pandemic flu as well as being able to spot the signs of H5N1 in humans or a future pandemic strain of flu once it emerges.”
Doctors will be able to download the training programme from www.doctors.net from Monday 12 December 2005.
The training course was designed by the Health Protection Agency and funded by the Department of Health.
Quelle: Publictechnology, 13.12.2005
