Flu fails to halt operations in the Lothians

Published on Tuesday 13 January 2009 09:30

CASES of flu in the Lothians have not led to operations being cancelled in the area's hospitals, health chiefs have revealed.

The 12 operations that were rescheduled in the first week of 2009 are not out of keeping with general trends throughout the year, the health board said, although one patient is still awaiting a new date.

Despite some UK health boards being crippled by influenza outbreaks, the Lothians appears to have got off fairly lightly.

By the end of last week only around 30 in every 100,000 people in the Lothians had reported to their GP with flu-like symptoms.

That is in contrast to places like Forth Valley, which recorded 180, in every 100,000 with the bug.

It is understood the low rates are a result of both good luck and a high-profile awareness campaign about getting elderly and frail people in particular vaccinated against the infection ahead of the winter season.

Some experts had predicted outbreaks given this was to be a colder winter than in recent years.

Mike Grieve, director of delivery for NHS Lothian, said: "12 operations scheduled to take place in NHS Lothian between January 1 and 8 were rescheduled for different dates. This was caused by a variety of different reasons and is in line with what we would expect throughout the year."