Last month, a GP newspaper survey found that nearly 60% of GPs would choose not to be vaccinated.

Of those planning to refuse, 71% feared the vaccine had not been tested enough to guarantee safety.

But experts told a media briefing in central London this week that the vaccine was safe having gone through a number of trials, and that many lives would be saved through the vaccination programme.

Professor Robert Dingwall, from the University of Nottingham, said: ‘The CMO investigation has shown that 50% of deaths from swine flu have occurred in the at-risk groups who will be vaccinated.

‘A vaccination programme does not pose the problem of creating resistance which excessive antiviral use could produce.'

He added that cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome were a rare complication more likely to be caused by the influenza virus itself than the actual flu vaccine.

Editor's blog: Do GPs and nurses have a responsibility to get swine flu jabs?