Clubs and societies have been asked to move out of their public meeting hall for the next three months so it can be used as a Tamiflu collection point.

NHS Hounslow has taken over council-owned Montague Hall, in Montague Road, Hounslow, where “flu friends” of residents who believe they have swine flu symptoms can pick up the antiviral drug.

The national pandemic flu service allows people to self-diagnose online and then collect drugs at the hall without needing to visit a GP.

Meanwhile, events such as a pre-wedding celebration, along with meetings for clubs including Hounslow and District History Society, the Civil Service Retirement Fellowship, Millan Asian Women’s Group and Weight Watchers have all had to find alternative venues.

Roy Woods, chairman of the Civil Service Retirement Fellowship, said its members had been asked to hold their meetings at the Treaty Centre.

He said: “We are all knocking on a bit, and they are moaning because there’s no tea-making facilities up there.

“They will have to stop a life-time habit of drinking cups of tea and will have to have a coke and straw instead.”

Ray Ferguson, secretary of Hounslow and District History Society, said: “It’s one of those things, but you put up with it. After all, they are public buildings.”

More than 160 antiviral collection points have been opened across London, and about 146,000 people in the capital have contacted the national pandemic flu service since it was launched on July 23, of which about 61,000 people have collected Tamiflu.

A spokesman for NHS Hounslow said the borough’s antiviral collection point moved from West Middlesex Hospital to Montague Hall on August 10.

He said: “It’s the only one in Hounslow at the moment. If there is a rise in cases of swine flu there will be other ones opened as necessary.

“Every effort has been made to offer alternative accommodation for those who would normally use Montague Hall.”