SWINE flu arrangements in north Essex have been scaled back as the number of cases drops.

From tomorrow anti-viral collection points at Fryatt Hospital in Harwich and Kennedy Way in Clacton will be closed.

Opening hours for the collection point at Colchester Primary Care Centre in Turner Road will also be reduced to 7am to 11pm, instead of 24 hours a day.

The telephone coordination centre, based at the Primary Care Centre, will also scale back its opening times to 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday.

Mike Cable, emergency planning lead officer for NHS North East Essex, said: “There has been a country-wide drop in the number of swine flu cases both in terms of the calls to GPs, the national pandemic flu line and our own coordination centre.

“As a result of this we have scaled down the number of swine flu centres.

“However we have retained a core of experienced staff and if the swine flu situation should develop again we will quickly be able to establish the centres again.”

He added the pharmacies which were designated as collection points would still remain in case they were needed in future.

Cases of swine flu across mid Essex and the need for anti viral medication have also fallen.

A total of 1,386 anti-virals were given out in the NHS Mid Essex area, which covers Braintree, Maldon and Chelmsford, in the first week the collection points opened on July 22.

This dropped to 981 in the week ending August 7.

NHS Mid Essex has cut the opening times for the anti-viral collection point at St Peter’s Hospital in Spital Road, Maldon.

The collection point will be open from 10am until noon in the morning and 5pm until 7pm in the evening.

It will be closed at weekends.

Dr Divine Nzuobontane, consultant in public health at NHS Mid Essex, said: “We’ve seen a much steadier flow of flu friends coming to collect anti-virals over the past few days and the weekends have been particularly quiet.

“It’s important that we use resources responsibly and that we don’t bring staff in to work extra hours unnecessarily.

The collection point at St Michael’s Hospital in Braintree will remain open as usual Monday to Friday from 8.30am until 8pm but weekend opening hours have been reduced to 10am until 4pm.

n Anyone who thinks they have swine flu is asked to call 0800 1513 100.