DOCTOR surgeries in Worcester are waiting too long before vaccinating vulnerable patients against swine flu, according to a city resident.

With the number of swine flu cases rising, GPs have been told to offer vaccines to patients with serious medical conditions.

But many surgeries have not yet received the vaccines.

Nick Berry, who suffers from a serious heart condition, became concerned after hearing that a close friend had been diagnosed with the virus.

He went to his GP surgery St Martin’s Gate in Newtown Road, Worcester, but was told they had not received the jab and did not know when they would.

According to NHS Worcester-shire, 600 people a week in Worcestershire are now taking anti-viral tablets having been diagnosed with swine flu.

They say batches of 500 vaccines are being distributed to GP surgeries as quickly as possible, but say delivering the drugs, which must be kept refrigerated, to all 68 practices in Worcester-shire, will take until next Friday to complete.

Mr Berry, aged 63, said making the vaccine available sooner may have prevented his friend, who is in her 60s and suffers from diabetes, from contracting swine flu.

“I want to know how come the vaccine hasn’t come and what is being done about it,” he said.

“I am acutely aware that there are people who are very vulnerable in the county, much worse off than myself, who are just not getting it yet.”

Mr Berry, a writer, who lives in Chelmsford Drive, Ronks-wood, recently suffered a stroke. He said his friend was now very poorly and he was worried he, too, could contract swine flu.

“I really think that somebody somewhere has messed up,” he said. “Now my friend has got swine flu.”

Dr Ash Banerjee, consultant in public health for NHS Worces-tershire, said front-line health workers and patients aged between six months and 65 years old with medical problems were currently being vaccinated. He said GP practices should know when they were due to receive the vaccines.

“We are vaccinating as fast as we can and deliveries are being made and are getting them out at a time before many have suffered from the flu,” he said.

“But the key thing is that I’m confident that practices are offering it when they can.”

No one from St Martin’s Gate surgery was available to comment.

Health boss Paul Bates has swine flu

WORCESTERSHIRE’S health boss has revealed he has been off sick for a fortnight with swine flu.

From his sick bed he has recommended that eligible frontline NHS staff and vulnerable groups get vaccinated as soon as possible.

Paul Bates, the chief executive of NHS Worcestershire, has been off work since he first developed the illness on Monday, October 26, but hopes to return to work on Monday.

NHS Worcestershire is the organisation which managed the epidemic through both the containment phase when health chiefs tried to stop the virus spreading and the treatment phase when ‘flu friends’ picked up antivirals to control symptoms.

Mr Bates is now urging frontline NHS staff and those in vulnerable groups such as pregnant women and those with certain chronic conditions to take the opportunity to be vaccinated.

He said: “I am not in one of the groups eligible for the swine flu vaccination but if I was, and knowing what I know now, I certainly would have had it. I am urging anyone who is offered the vaccine, and that includes our frontline NHS staff, to have it to help limit the spread of this virus and protect themselves and their families.”