HOSPITAL staff are taking every possible precaution to prevent the spread of swine flu, according to one patient who witnessed the process first hand.

Three more people in the UK have now been diagnosed with the illness, making a total of eight, the Department of Health has confirmed.

None of the confirmed cases have been in Essex, but that hasn’t stopped hospitals taking every precaution, as one hospital visitor discovered recently.

The 31-year-old from Thundersley, who visited Southend Hospital’s A&E department on Wednesday evening, said: “I went to hospital because I had hurt my shoulder. They told me to go in to see a doctor next door to where we were, but when I tried to walk in a nurse shouted at me to get out because they had an outbreak of flu. I just got straight out of there.”

But it appears as if the medics overreacted as Pat Stone, spokeswoman for Southend Hospital, said there were no patients with suspected swine flu on that night.

The devastating virus, which emerged in Mexico, is suspected to have caused 168 deaths. Eight of those have so far been confirmed.

Health chiefs this week urged people to stay at home and call their GPs or NHS Direct if they suspect they may have succumbed to the illness.

They have now revealed what people can expect if they are unwell.

The guidelines inform doctors that if the patient has not visited one of the regions affected by swine flu it is unlikely they have the virus. But if they have, the agency is immediately informed and the patient is given access to antiviral drugs.

Dr Peter Glover from the Church View surgery in High Street, Rayleigh, said he was optimistic that if the virus hadn’t spread significantly within a week the worst could be over. He said: “My feeling is that in the next week, as people come back from Mexico, if there is subsequently not a huge number of cases we might be getting away with it.

“We haven’t been any busier than usual at the surgery. People don’t seem to be worried. I am confident that we have been given the right guidance by the primary care trust and the Health Protection Agency.”

Dr Glover added: “At the moment the procedures only involve those who have come from affected countries because every case has been linked. If that changed then the agency would change the procedure immediately. The situation is monitored on a daily basis.”