Thousands of elderly people in council care homes are being told to get jabs for bird flu at the earliest sign of an outbreak.

Simon Williams, the Green Party's health spokesman on Brighton and Hove City Council, has called on the local authority to draw up plans to help vulnerable people in the event of a deadly strain of the virus hitting the city.

Health authorities have been put in charge of making sure local services are prepared for an outbreak. During the next few weeks exercises will be taking place across Sussex to fine-tune emergency plans and Government information packs are being sent out to GPs.

But Coun Williams said it would be wrong for the council to pass the buck to health authorities.

He has asked the council what measures it had put in place to protect the older and immune-compromised people in its care.

He said: "The primary care trust may be the leading health agency but I want to know what measures the council is implementing to fulfill its duty of care.

"The Government's Chief Medical Officer has suggested an extra 50,000 people could die from a human form of bird flu if the virus were to hit the UK before a vaccine is ready.

"Older and immune-compromised patients are most at risk and should the human form of bird flu materialise."

A council spokeswoman said: "The council has a duty of care to the older and vulnerable people it looks after but as this is a health issue it is very much the primary care trust which is taking the lead."

Angela Iverson, director of Surrey and Sussex Health Protection Agency, which is responsible for public health, said: "The Department of Health and the Health Protection Agency have both produced very comprehensive flu pandemic plans, which have just been updated.

"The Government is one of the best prepared in the world.

"We shall shortly be holding a large-scale exercise to test our response to the eventuality of a pandemic."

Last week Worthing Hospital consultant microbiologist Jenny Child said it was too early to panic about bird flu. Cross-infection to humans is still relatively rare.

But Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson has said a pandemic is inevitable.

The UK has so far stockpiled 2.5 million courses of anti-viral drugs and has ordered a total of 14.6 million.