By Susan Sandys  July 28, 2009

Ward earmarked as 'flu ward'. 

Ashburton Hospital management have earmarked a ward which would become a ‘flu ward' in the case of high numbers of swine flu patients requiring treatment.But so far the hospital has avoided being swamped, a scenario faced at Christchurch Hospital where the intensive care unit is under pressure from swine flu sufferers.

Ashburton Hospital has had three admissions of people with flu-like illnesses. Just one remained in hospital yesterday and was in isolation. Director of nursing and clinical services Heather Gray said none of the three patients had been seriously unwell.

While management had earmarked a ward to become the ‘flu ward', the hospital's plans were fluid and the delegation of this ward could change depending on the seriousness of the illness people were suffering.

"At the moment it's business as usual in those areas, when you open a ward for flu you change what else you are able to do," she said. The hospital could have to stop elective and out-patient services in the event of a large influx of flu patients. Its biggest concern was if a high number of staff became unwell with the virus.

"It's normal to get influenza and colds at this time of the year.

"It (swine flu) hasn't impacted hugely," she said.

"It may be that we still haven't built up yet in this community," Ms Gray said.

"It's hard to know what it's going to do because it's a novel virus, so we just have to wait and see."

A quiet weekend at the flu clinic

There were no visits to Ashburton Hospital's flu clinic at the weekend, while from 10 to 20 people per day visited on average throughout the week last week.

A small flu clinic at Methven is seeing from three to four patients each day. The Methven centre is one of four small centres in Canterbury which opened last month. The others are at Waikari, Akaroa and Kaikoura.

Canterbury Primary Care Pandemic Group leader Dr Phil Schroeder said attendances had dropped at most of Canterbury's flu centres following school holidays. Staff were "cautiously waiting" to see what impact children returning would have this week.

Children under four years are the most common age group represented at flu centres, with the average age of all patients being around 15.