Make child vaccines available in supermarkets to reverse falling jab rates, say doctors

VACCINES should be offered in supermarkets, nurseries and children’s centres to tackle falling immunisation rates, experts say.

Doctors yesterday dismissed as a ‘knee-jerk reaction’ Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s suggestions that vaccination should become compulsory.

They said forcing children to have jabs would do ‘irreparable damage’ to the high level of trust people have in vaccines and risks creating suspicion of the medical profession.

Instead, Helen Bedford, of University College London’s Institute of Child Health, said: ‘It’s about offering vaccination in places other than general practices – so places where families go routinely, maybe even supermarkets or pop-up places, that’s the kind of thing we need to be looking at.’

She warned that busy family life is a barrier to making sure youngsters are up-to-date with vaccinations, saying: ‘You may be a working parent, you may have one child in nursery, one child in school and it’s simply difficult to get to the GP at the appointed hour.’

She added: ‘I don’t think we should imposing anything on people, we should be having dialogue with our communities about what is best for them.

‘To go towards [being mandatory], when we don’t have all these other things, is just a knee-jerk reaction.’ Last month, Mr Hancock said he would not rule out bold action after figures showed fewer children are having routine NHS vaccinations.

Data showed that for the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jab, 90.3 per cent of children had their first dose in 2018-19, down from 91.2 per cent the year before and continuing a five-year trend.

The proportion vaccinated with all doses of the combined diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio and Haemophilus influenzae type b jab also fell, to 92.1 per cent by age 12 months – its lowest level since 2008-09.

Helen Donovan, of the Royal College of Nursing, said vaccinations could be given in places such as children’s centres or nurseries and that the general practice system needs to be more flexible, with evening and weekend surgeries.

Dr David Elliman, from Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, said he was in favour of clinics being set up in places such as music festivals to help reach those in their late teens and early 20s who may have missed their MMR jab in the wake of the Andrew Wakefield autism controversy.

He added: ‘All you need is a medical professional, a room and the jab. It could be a portacabin in the local supermarket car park or at a music festival.’

He said mandatory vaccination should not be introduced to ‘prop up’ failures in the current system.

‘Irreparable damage’