Dear colleague
Measles cases are rising in London (we have already experienced outbreaks in parts of NEL). UKHSA has today announced the potential for a serious outbreak and NHS England has launched a national measles campaign to raise awareness of the seriousness of measles and the availability of the MMR vaccine, with strong focus on London.
While it is clearly good news that parents are looking to get their children protected, we appreciate this may put additional pressure on your teams.
Expect a rise in the number of parents calling asking if their child is up to date with their MMR and other routine imms. Many of these will be, but please be prepared to arrange vaccinations (MMR, Polio and any other they need) for those who are not. This may require the provision of extra resource.
An MMR and Polio catch-up campaign has been running in NEL since June. Vaccination UK has been commissioned directly by NHSE to identify and contact parents of children aged 4 to 11, whose vaccination record says they are behind on polio and measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccinations and arrange a catch-up dose at a local clinic or where possible get consent for an in-school vaccination. Our campaign page is here and contains info on the Vaccination UK clinics.
For younger children, and everyone else, we are encouraging them to check their child’s health record (red book) or contact their GP to see if they are up to date and arrange a vaccination if they aren’t.
We have identified some potential challenges to consider:
- Parents may have lost their child’s health record (red book), and therefore be unaware of the vaccinations their child has had. In this case, you will need to check their patient record.
- There may be language barriers. Translation resources can be accessed online: www.languageline.com/uk or by phone: 0800 169 2879.
- You may receive enquiries from parents that are unregistered. You can register them at the practice, ask them to visit nhs.uk/findagp or call 0300 311 22 33.
- The recent polio booster programme in London means some children have received a vaccination earlier or later than the typical schedule. You will need to check the child’s record for any additional booster vaccination and determine if a vaccination is due by following the missed/incomplete vaccinations algorithm Vaccination of individuals with uncertain or incomplete immunisation status (publishing.service.gov.uk)
It is anticipated that this campaign will continue through the summer and we will review how many children are being vaccinated through the campaign in the Autumn.
We recognise that there are ongoing pressures in primary care and we are looking at further ways we can support general practice to get patients caught up and avoid potential outbreaks. Thank you.