DETAILS of crisis measures needed in the event of a catastrophic flu pandemic – including the closure of schools and the provision of emergency hospitals, vaccination centres and mortuaries – have been revealed for the first time.

The information was disclosed this week as members of a States steering group set up to plan for a flu pandemic were questioned by the Health and Social Services Scrutiny panel. The group say that it is a matter of when, and not if, a pandemic sweeps across the globe and they predict that one will strike Jersey within three to eight years.

Dr Ivan Muscat, the consultant microbiologist at the Hospital and a member of the group, said that the hospital would be unable to cope if casualty figures were as high as predicted. They anticipate that 35,000 Islanders would be affected. Of those, 1,200 are likely to have to be hospitalised during the four weeks that the first wave of flu swept through the Island.

However, Dr Muscat said that there were only 250 beds at the Hospital, so other emergency medical centres would have to be ready.