THE MANAGER of a surgery has said they may have to see less regular patients because of the rise in swine flu.

Surgeries across south Essex have said inquiries about swine flu from concerned patients have shot up.

At the Audley Mills Surgery in Eastwood Road, Rayleigh, practice manager Steve Doherty said they might have to cancel some normal appointments if they continue to receive such a high number of calls about the pandemic.

He said calls about the disease had rocketed almost tenfold in the past couple of days, though they have had no confirmed cases.

Mr Doherty said: “It’s approaching a stage where we will have to consider if we are going to offer as many normal appointments because doctors are spending more time on the phone.”

Meanwhile Dr Bilquis Agha, a partner at both the Southend Medical Centre in London Road and the Tyrone Road Surgery in Thorpe Bay, said they had received about 50 per cent more calls.

She said last week there were three confirmed cases at the Southend surgery and two at Thorpe Bay, a doctor and her son.

Suspected sufferers are encouraged to call their GPs. Doctors have been told that temperature is the key to diagnosing swine flu. If patients have any two flu-like symptoms, such as aches, a sore throat or a runny nose, plus a high temperature then they are diagnosed with swine flu.

Dr Agha said: “It’s a bad way of diagnosing.

“We try to use our clinical judgements, but we can only hear patients on the phone.”