GPs allowed to give swine flu jab
Vaccination campaign will continue until September, and will include doctors after a two-month battle by GPs' unions
DOCTORS have won the right to give the swine flu vaccine to patients in their surgeries following a U-turn by the Health Ministry.
Until now, the jab has only been available in about 1,000 specially set-up centres, which have recorded five million visits since the vaccination campaign began in November.
Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot has previously said that a GP's role was to look after patients showing signs of the virus, and not in the first instance to vaccinate against it.
She announced the change of plan last night. Exact details of how the surgery vaccination will take place, and how it will be funded, have yet to be made public.
Two French doctors' unions, the Confédération des Syndicats Médicaux Francçais and MG France, wrote to the Health Ministry at the end of November calling for GPs to have the right to give out the swine flu jab in their surgeries to get people vaccinated quicker.
CSMF president Michel Chassang told France Info this morning that there was a "crisis of confidence" among the French public and opening up the vaccination campaign to GPs' surgeries would help the medical profession explain to patients why they need to get the jab.
The vaccination campaign will continue until September. Teachers and other school staff will start getting the jab from today, as well as any pupils who were not vaccinated during the first round in the autumn.
The decision to let GPs give the swine flu jab comes after a newspaper report on Sunday revealed that the French government was sitting on stocks of millions of unused swine flu vaccines that it was looking to sell overseas.
Ms Bachelot said last night that the government had agreed with the vaccine's manufacturers to cancel half of its order - about 50 million doses - instead of selling them on.
