FLU friends collecting antiviral medication for swine flu sufferers have been faced with a three hour wait at the only collection point in West Essex.

Mother of one Jo Antony, 35 from Buckhurst Hill tried to collect Tamiflu for her 21 month old son at St Margaret's Hospital in Epping, but was told she would have to wait for up to three hours.

She said: “I ended up leaving. There were about 25 people in the queue. I understand that the NHS are under pressure but then they ask you loads of questions over the phone so I don't understand why it takes so long to give out some medication.”

Mrs Antony called the National Flu Pandemic Service when her baby started showing signs of swine flu and was told she could collect antiviral medication from the hospital.

She said: “He has a really high temperature and a cough. My husband came home from work so I could go and get the drugs, because I couldn't take my child with me, but I couldn't stay up there for three hours because my husband had to get back.

"There will obviously be a lot of people collecting the drugs for a friend and I can't imagine they would want to wait that long. Three hours isn't acceptable. You wouldn't have to wait anywhere near that long at a chemist.”

Alison Cowie director of public health said there had been high volumes of people coming to the new collection point in Epping.

She said: “Each person has to be fully assessed before antivirals can be dispensed. This does mean that there are periods of time when people have to wait to be seen. When this happens we make sure that those waiting are told how long the wait may be and ensure that we have enough staff to deal with the numbers.

"There was a period earlier today when there was a high number of flu friends waiting to be seen. They were told in advance that the wait could be up to three hours. In reality this was not the case and people were seen much sooner.”