This was the scene in Watford when hundreds of people queued up outside an NHS recruitment centre on Monday.

The hopeful job applicants were, according to national reports, aiming to land a job on the new National Flu Service.

They were lining up outside NHS Professionals, which provides flexible workers to 130 NHS Trusts across the country.

The service has more than 45,000 nursing, medical, admin and clerical staff on its books.

The National Flu Service, which is set to go live later today (Thursday), is a phone and website service that will give thousands of people suffering from suspected swine flu access to anti-flu drugs.

There are expected to be approximately 1,500 call centre staff working on the service, which has been set up to ease pressure on the NHS.

Details of the website and telephone number are yet to be released.

Some 31 people in the UK have now died from swine flu, with thousands more suffering from the pandemic.

Despite several telephone enquiries from the Watford Observer, NHS Professionals were unable to comment.