A patient in the West Midlands suffering from swine flu has died, it was confirmed today, taking the number of reported fatalities linked to the virus in Britain to 31.

The latest death came as Gordon Brown insisted that Britain was well prepared for the pandemic. Speaking at his monthly press conference in Downing Street, the prime minister said: "We are putting in an enormous effort to ensure our country is best prepared to deal with the international pandemic of swine flu.

"We are doing so in a calm and organised and ordered way."

The government has come under criticism for issuing mixed messages to pregnant women and for reported delays on a phone hotline in dealing with swine flu.

Brown, however, said: "Robust plans are in place, the NHS is continuing to cope well thanks to the sterling efforts of its staff, but as swine flu cases have started to increase, we need to be able to give greater numbers of antivirals to greater numbers of people quickly."

He added that the hotline in England – the national pandemic flu service – will be in operation by the end of the week.

Under the scheme, if a caller is confirmed to have swine flu, they would get an authorisation number, which a "flu friend" can use to pick up antiviral drugs from a local collection point, thereby relieving pressure on GPs.

The service would not be in operation this week in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland because those parts of the UK had not seen the same "rate of spread", but they could opt in at a later date.

New figures on the numbers of people attending GP consultations will be released tomorrow, with the latest death toll and the numbers of people with the virus being treated in hospital.

In the latest death linked to swine flu, the West Midlands patient, who has not been identified, tested positive for swine flu but it is unclear how much it contributed to their death.

A spokeswoman for NHS West Midlands said: "It is with sadness that we have to announce that a third person from the West Midlands who had tested positive for H1N1 swine flu has died. A postmortem [examination] will be carried out to determine the cause of death and until that is complete no further details will be released."

Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical company GSK, which is supplying a vaccine to the UK alongside another company, Baxter, said first batches of its vaccine would not be available until September.