HEALTH chiefs fear a flu epidemic could kill up to 2,000 people in Cheshire and Merseyside.

They also foresee an extra 100,000 people seeing their GPs during an outbreak, with at least 3,000 of these needing hospital treatment.

In order to cope, hospital and primary care staff are finalising plans to ensure any possible pandemic has minimum impact.

All local NHS bodies are developing contingency plans to reduce the impact of any outbreak and minimise disruption to essential services.

The Strategic Health Authority (SHA) will review all plans in early December to ensure they mirror national guidelines and advice.

Chris Hannah, chief executive of Cheshire and Merseyside SHA, said: 'NHS organisations have a strong tradition of working together in emergency situations when there is an increased demand for health-care.

'The contingency plans for pandemic flu build on our experience of responding to other types of major incident by ensuring arrangements are in place to direct NHS resources to where they are most needed.'

He said of the projected death toll: 'These are estimated figures and not necessarily what we could expect to happen.

'However, we are sensibly using these estimates as the basis for developing local contingency plans.'

To ensure this, the SHA is working alongside the North West Regional Director of Public Health, Health Protection Agency, local authorities and social services.