‘Bring back specialists to reverse dip in vaccine rates’

HUNDREDS of immunisation specialists should be hired by the NHS to reverse falling vaccination rates, experts say.

The number of local NHS officials directly responsible for immunisation programmes has dropped ten-fold in six years.

And experts last night called for the post of district immunisation coordinator to be reinstated amid the decline in vaccinations.

Before Andrew Lansley’s NHS reforms in 2013, there were more than 200 coordinators in England. But when primary care trusts were abolished six years ago the co-ordinators were replaced by ‘screening and immunisation leads’. But there are only 23 of these, with each merely responsible for ‘commissioning’ vaccination services rather than running them.

And each covers a far larger area. In London for example, 31 district immunisation co-ordinators were replaced by a single screening and immunisation lead. Helen Donovan, who leads on public health at the Royal College of Nursing, was a co-ordinator in Haringey, North London, until 2013.

She said: ‘I was responsible for 50 or 0 GP practices and I knew them well. I knew the nurses and I had responsibility for scrutinising the data.’

Boris Johnson vowed to examine the issue in his new vaccination strategy, due to be published in the coming weeks.

Dr Doug Brown, of the British Society for Immunology, said co-ordinators play a ‘crucial role’ in ensuring that vaccination rates are kept high.

And Dr Mary Ramsay, Public Health England’s head of immunisation, said: ‘Strengthening the role of immunisation coordinators would mean that local people, who know their communities, are there to support GPs and nurses to ensure children receive vaccinations.’

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: ‘We are already working to strengthen the role of local immunisation co-ordinators.’

‘They play a crucial role’