The mass vaccination program began across the country a fortnight ago, but Milton doctor Brett Thomson said locals had been slow on the uptake.

“We’ve been doing vaccinations one day per week, with only about 20 people last Wednesday,” he said.

“I was quite surprised there weren’t more people.”

He said the media swine flu hype had died down, so people may not be as concerned about being vaccinated.

“If it had’ve been three months ago I think people would have been bashing our doors down.

“But there’s also been some confusion and concern about the speed of the vaccine manufacture and also its side effects.

“We’ve provided a lot of information to patients and there has been a mixed response.”

Dr Thomson said flu had been taken over by the number of gastroenteritis and whooping cough cases in recent weeks.

“There’s been a few people admitted to hospital with gastro viruses – nothing out of the ordinary - but we’ve seen a huge spike in the number of people contracting whooping cough,” he said.