Researchers at Mayday Hospital have discovered crucial problems with a device used to vaccinate against flu.

Doctors have found that 70 per cent of the elderly people they trained to use the inhaler administering the anti-flu drug Relenza still could not use it properly.

Their findings, which were published nationally, mean that the inhaler Diskhaler is preventing people from getting the full benefit of the drug.

Paul Diggory, consultant in elderly care medicine at Mayday, said "Flu is still a major disease in the elderly.

“It affects people of all ages, but 80 per cent of deaths occur in elderly people who are more likely to develop complications than younger people."

He said vaccination is effective in preventing or reducing the veracity of flu in the elderly and is recommended, but that trials carried out by GlaxoSmithKline had not fully taken into account problems the elderly might have using the Diskhaler.

He said the elderly often find inhalers difficult because of arthritis, weakness, poor dexterity, vision, and brain function, but that the Diskhaler's design made it more so.

When asked if they would consider changing the choice of inhaler in light of the research, a spokeswoman for Glaxo denied the device had been marketed without proper trials. She said as many as 94 per cent of a group of 400

patients aged 65 plus had said they found the Diskhaler instructions easy to follow and 89 per cent found the device easy to use.

She said a study measuring the effectiveness of the drug in patients aged 50 plus found the drug to be at least as effective in this age group as in the rest of the population.

Correct guide to using the inhaler

Mr Diggory said there were several stages to using the inhaler which patients would need to get right for the drug to work:

"Taking the top off, sliding the tray backwards and forwards to rotate the disc to an intact blister, raising a

perforator to 90 degrees, which is then lowered to its original position.

“This perforates the blister and delivers the drug to the inhaler chamber.

“If no blisters are intact a new disc must be loaded by unlatching and removing the tray, changing the disc, and replacing the tray."