The Department of Health has reduced the number of call centre staff delivering the National Pandemic Flu Service.
The DH said the online and telephone-based flu assessment service had proved “extremely successful” since its launch at the end of July and that it had helped to take the pressure off other parts of the NHS.
However, it said the decreasing number of assessments being carried out by the NPFS following a fall in the first peak of swine flu meant it had reduced the number of call centre agents.
A DH spokesperson told EHI Primary Care that it would not be revealing details about how many staff had been cut. However, it said flexibility to increase and decrease staff numbers had always been included in the contract for the NPFS.
A statement issued by the DH added: “Recently, demand for the NPFS has decreased. Therefore we have reduced excess call centre capacity, but we are ensuring that there is still a sufficient number of seats to deal with incoming calls.
“We keep demand for the NPFS under constant review, and maintain a pool of providers from whom we can secure additional capacity if needed."
Latest weekly figures from the Health Protection Agency show that there were an estimated 5,000 new cases in England last week, falling from a peak of more than 100,000 cases at the end of July.
The DH has told PCTs to prepare for a second, potentially more aggressive wave of swine flu in the autumn and winter, and to be reviewing and testing plans to cope with such an increase now.
Planning guidance issued to PCTs says decisions to suspend the Quality and Outcomes Framework or Directed Enhanced Services would be made by the DH, but PCTs could decide to suspend Local Enhanced Services (LES) schemes.
It sets out steps PCTs should take according to three levels of escalation and the contractual implications as well as the implications for out-of-hours providers.