A HEALTH boss has been criticised for "an ineffectual and pathetic response" to demands for all GPs to carry penicillin for immediate treatment of meningitis - as four new suspected cases were revealed in East Lancashire.

The attack by Burnley patient watchdogs came as new cases of the killer virus took the East Lancashire total to 27 since Christmas, two of them resulting in death.

The latest announced today involve patients from Pendle, Blackburn and Rossendale - three pre-school children and an adult.

Community Health Council chairman Frank Clifford attacked the leadership of East Lancashire Health Authority chairman Bill Ashworth on the "life or death" penicillin issue at a time when, he said, suspected meningitis cases had reached record levels. His comments followed the health authority chief's recorded response to a CHC campaign for doctors to carry antibiotics for the treatment of suspected victims at home.

The CHC minutes of the joint meeting between the authority and the council say Mr Ashworth felt the contents of a GP's medical bag were up to the discretion of the GP.

And at last night's CHC meeting in Nelson, Coun Clifford, who attended the joint meeting, said: "It was an ineffectual and pathetic response.

"I believe he is failing in his duty to try to improve standards and give leadership in an area where lives can be saved at little cost."

Coun Clifford, who has campaigned for three years for GPs to carry penicillin for immediate treatment, said he knew of a very poorly child in East Lancashire whose life had been saved by penicillin injection at home.

"It is a vital issue, especially at a time when we have had more cases than ever before, but not all GPs carry penicillin," he added.

Today a health authority spokesman said neither Mr Ashworth nor chief executive David Peat was available to respond, but it was felt that most family doctors did carry penicillin for treatment of suspected meningitis cases.

The latest cases are understood to include a youngster from Bacup and a 29-year-old nursery nurse from Blackburn.

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