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The national swine flu website, which was designed to give sufferers direct access to anti-viral drugs, collapsed under the weight of demand immediately after being launched yesterday.

The pandemic flu service site received more than nine million visits an hour - or 2,600 a second - after being activated at 3pm, the Department of Health said.

Visitors attempting to have their symptoms assessed were directed to a holding page.

It said: "The service is currently very busy and cannot deal with your request at this time. Please try again in a little while."

The message was given immediately after the website's launch, and was still being displayed at least four hours later - despite the department claiming capacity was quadrupled at 5.30pm.

Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, said: "This is obviously very worrying and raises serious questions about the robustness of the pandemic flu system.

"It is absolutely vital that the public have access to a reliable source of information on swine flu to provide reassurance and to take the pressure off GPs surgeries."

A spokesman for the Patients Association said: "It's disappointing to hear that the service was not able to meet demand."

Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer, said the problem was caused by people visiting the site out of "curiosity".

It was "rather implausible to think that there might be tens of thousands of people with flu waiting within a one-hour period to all get on and assess their symptoms," Sir Liam said.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "During the early hours of the service, people were very keen to look at the site. We were swamped by the interest. We have been working hard with our IT people to expand the capacity in order to meet demand."

The accompanying "swine flu hotline", through which suspected sufferers could have their symptoms assessed over the telephone, did not suffer similar problems.

Callers were able to speak to an assistant without delay at 3pm, and the service continued to meet demand throughout yesterday evening.

If the symptoms they described suggested that they - or someone they were calling for - had indeed caught the virus, they were given a code to exchange for Tamiflu at a nearby outlet.

However, fears grew that the service would be exploited by so-called "worried well" people willing to lie to obtain the drugs in case they contracted swine flu in the future.

There was particular concern that holidaymakers would do so, because they would not have access to antiviral drugs abroad or would not feel comfortable dealing with foreign doctors.

Peter Holden, the pandemic flu leader for the British Medical Association, said that abuse of the system could lead to shortages.

He said: "There are 30 million doses of Tamiflu and a lot more people than that in the country. People need to show a little of the Dunkirk spirit and take what they need."

Stephen Fielding, the chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: "The public must act responsibly and only contact the helpline if they have symptoms of flu."

Sir Liam added: "A small number of people may try and abuse the system but I have great trust and faith in the British public."

Doctors also warned that anyone caught selling the anti-viral drugs over the internet was breaking the law. The internet auction website Ebay has banned the sale of Tamiflu on its site.

The swine flu service was being staffed by more than 1,500 call centre workers. The Department of Health said it would recruit 500 more if necessary.

The staff were estimated to be capable of answering more than 200,000 calls during a 15-hour working day – or more than a million calls a week.

The website is www.direct.gov.uk/pandemicflu

telegraph.co.uk