Swine flu influx stretching hospitals

Published: 6:51AM Saturday July 31, 2010 Source: Newstalk ZB

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  • Swine flu influx stretching hospitals (Source: ONE News)
    Source: ONE News

There is evidence a lot of people are ignoring calls to stay away from hospitals if they have swine flu.

The virus has now become the dominant flu strain, and emergency departments are struggling to cope with numbers.

Almost 1,900 people have been to hospital in the past week with flu-like symptoms - pushing admissions to a new high for the year.

Up to two-thirds of them were given Tamiflu, and Auckland hospitals say they are running near capacity.

In Northland, Whangarei emergency department clinical leader Scott Cameron said his team was overloaded, and it was very uncomfortable in terms of staffing and space.

The Ministry of Health says people should stay at home until they have recovered from the flu, and not go to hospital.

Numbers are still well down on last year - when swine flu became a pandemic.

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