GPs want to give swine flu vaccine
Doctors say huge queues outside vaccination centres will get worse as primary school children get vaccinated from today
TWO French doctors' unions have urged the government to allow GPs to give out the swine flu vaccine in their surgeries to help reduce queues.
The Confédération des Syndicats Médicaux Francçais and MG France said opening up the vaccination campaign to doctors' surgeries was essential to ensure everyone who wants the jab can get it.
At the moment, the jab is only available in about 1,000 specially set-up centres, many of which have reported long queues as pregnant women and young children get the jab.
The waiting time could be even longer from today, as primary school pupils become the next priority group to be vaccinated.
The Health Ministry has brought in army doctors to increase the number of staff giving out the vaccine.
Some centres are also extending their opening hours, especially on Wednesdays and Saturdays when children are not in school.
However Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot said GPs' role was to look after patients showing signs of the virus, and not in the first instance to vaccinate against it.
Some 700,000 people have called their GP reporting flu-like symptoms in the past week, according to France Soir.
Two patients died this weekend from a mutated form of the virus, which is resistant to Tamiflu. The Institut du Veille Sanitaire says it is the first case of mutation reported in France.
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