Health and council workers are being asked to list their skills and qualifications so they can take on other jobs if dozens go off sick with swine flu, it emerged today.

A skills audit has been launched at Wolverhampton City Council and Primary Care Trust after bosses revealed they expected up to half the workforce to come down with the illness.

Staff will be asked to list down skills such as catering experience or lorry driving and could be temporarily redeployed based on the answers they give if other workers go off sick.

Chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson revealed last night that the second wave of the flu pandemic was well under way, although current figures suggest the expected peak could be lower than previously thought. Estimates show there were 18,000 new cases of swine flu in England in the last week, up from 14,000 in the previous week and 9,000 the week before that.

Jon Crockett, chief executive of the Wolverhampton PCT said: “It is predicted that pandemic flu could impact on up to 50 per cent of the staff, whether because they contract the flu virus or because they care for dependents with the virus.

“This could have a serious impact on our capacity, and that of our partners’, to deliver health and social care services in the city.

“Should we face this scenario, we may have to temporarily redeploy staff to ensure we can continue to provide critical and priority services. We are therefore surveying all our staff to find out their many and varied qualifications, skills and experiences.

“We already know the qualifications staff have to do their current job but we might not be aware someone had previously trained as a nurse, or had a bereavement counselling qualification, or perhaps held a HGV license or was fluent in a foreign language.”

He insisted staff would only be deployed in an emergency and that nobody would be asked to take on a job they were not trained to do.

Healthcare bosses in the region say the Black Country is well prepared to cope with a second wave of swine flu.

Dudley director of public health Valerie Little said: “We have done everything we can to prepare for a second wave of swine flu.

“The public need to know that local strategies have been put into place which can cope.

“Pandemic flu is an immediate threat and for us to deal with it is a considerable task which will have an impact on services.”

In a report to the Dudley PCT’s board of directors, Mrs Little identified a number of likely issues during the second wave, which include increased pressure on intensive care for children, provision of oxygen at patients’ homes and the need for more blood transfusions.

Plans have been put in place to deal with all eventualities – including redirecting workers at GP’s practices from other treatment areas if needed.