Mike O'Brien (Minister of State (Health Services), Department of Health; North Warwickshire, Labour)

The national health service has been preparing for a pandemic for several years. In 2007 we published "Pandemic flu: a national framework for responding to an influenza pandemic", which set out the Government's strategic approach for responding to an influenza pandemic and gave guidance to public and private organisations developing response plans. A copy has already been placed in the Library. The national framework was supported by a range of guidance for healthcare and social care organisations.

The NHS operating framework for 2008 required all NHS organisations to have robust plans in place to respond to a pandemic by the end of 2008. Ian Dalton, National Director of NHS Flu Resilience wrote to NHS Chief Executives on 2 July 2009 setting out resilience actions for NHS Boards to test their plans.

During 2009, the Department of Health has continued to support NHS organisations. In July the National Pandemic Flu Service was launched which has been successful in reducing the pressure on general practitioners and primary care services and enabling patients to access anti-virals rapidly according to local needs.