This is a public service announcement: England is dieing. ("Bring out your dead!")

Our hospitals are grinding to a halt and the specialists and consultants are refusing to enter them. Entire wards are being quarantined at a time and A&E sections are being closed and terning people away.

It would seem that Captain Trips has come to visit...

The cause of this panic and failure is a flu epidemic that swept the hospitals on the run up to Christmas. People started to literally pour into the hospitals vomiting and feeling generally very unwell. Before that week was out Canterbury Hospital Closed. The infection has spread to the hospitals where it was able to run unchecked through the places in record time.

The staff at these places were ill equipped to handle such a flood and hospital after hospital is closing down under the strain. In computer terms this is a DDOS attack with the power to take down say Google, Blogger and Yahoo and then have a look at killing Alta-vista without even pausing for breath.

The elderly and newborn are most at risk as your average healthy human has nothing to fear other than a few days of tummy ache vomiting and the trots with the greatest threat being dehydration.

The seriously ill and elderly are advised to stay clear of hospitals until this is over (if it ever is). The sick and injured in hospital can expect fairly dedicated nursing but actual expert attention is another matter. The experts will not be allowed onto a ward until it has been clean for 48 hours.

My Nan had a fall boxing day and still no one knows when she will see the consultant.

The problem is that this flu can mutate fast enough to re-infect people that have already had it. I have it on good authority that the "quarantined" wards are seeing people come down with this same bug more than once.

("Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead! Bring out your dad (if you don't like him)!")

¶ 7:24 pm