Conservative party leader David Cameron has backed a Shropshire father who is campaigning for a halt to over-the-phone swine flu diagnosis.

Karl Hartey launched the campaign following the death of his daughter Charlotte, 16, of Weston Rhyn, near Oswestry, on July 31.

Charlotte had been diagnosed over the phone by a GP as having swine flu and was prescribed Tamiflu.

Tests later showed she never had swine flu but in fact had tonsillitis.

Following her death, Mr Hartey launched a petition calling for the call centre approach to medical diagnosis to be abandoned.

It now has about 15,000 signatures.

In an e-mail to Mr Hartey, Mr Cameron said: “When it comes to swine flu, I do think that more could have been done to stop confusion spreading among GPs and the public about what was happening – particularly about when antiviral drugs should be prescribed, when GPs should see people in the surgery or at home, and in what circumstances they could rely on diagnosing someone over the phone.

“I will ask Andrew Lansley (shadow health secretary) to look closely into this and make sure that the Government is giving out the right message to the public and GPs.

“You are absolutely right that we need to do everything possible to stop things like this from happening again.”

Mr Hartey said it was important to get people like Mr Cameron on board for when he meets health secretary Andy Burnham to deliver the petition, which he hopes to do within the next 10 days.

He said: “The petition is now ready to deliver. Thank you to all who supported it.

“We are looking to meet with the health secretary Andy Burnham with support from Owen Paterson MP and Andrew Lansley the shadow health secretary.”

He added that a charity football match was also set to be held at Oswestry School on October 21 to raise funds for the Charlotte Foundation, which supports county charities.

Mr Hartey will be the captain of the Charlotte Eleven team, made up of friends and family, who will be wearing a specially made kit in Charlotte’s favourite colours, baby blue and pink, with the Charlotte Foundation printed on it.

They will be taking on a team from the sixth form at Oswestry School.

By Suzanne Roberts