Health visitors reject call for MMR to be made compulsory
4th June 2009
Health visitors are opposed to a proposal to make the MMR
immunisation mandatory for young children.
Unite, which embraces the Community Practitioners’ and Health
Visitors’ Association (CPHVA), has rejected the call by a former
chairman of the British Medical Association (BMA), Sir Sandy Macara
for children under five to be compulsorily immunised with the MMR
injections against measles, mumps and rubella.
Cheryll Adams, Unite’s lead professional officer, strategy &
practice development ,said: "We believe that the NHS is about
choice, therefore we think that Sir Sandy’s MMR motion to be
debated at this month’s BMA conference would be incompatible with
that principle.
"Instead, Unite/CPHVA believes that employing more health
visitors and community nurses would provide the enhanced coverage
necessary by healthcare professionals to explain to parents that
MMR is a vital defence against these diseases which can either kill
or cause serious disability.
"Educating parents, not coercion, is the best way forward."
Cheryll Adams said that health visitors believed there was a
direct link between the declining MMR take-up rates and the
slimming down of the health visiting service by primary care trusts
(PCTs) over the last four years.
She said: "The health visiting service is now so under-resourced
that health visitors no longer automatically see families when the
child is 8-to-12 months old, which is the best time to provide
advice and information, so that parents can make an informed
decision about the first MMR immunisation."
At present, only 80 per cent of children have had both the MMR
immunisations needed to give full protection – it is only when that
figure reaches 95 per cent does the population as a whole achieve
the ‘herd immunity’ necessary to keep these diseases at bay.
ENDS
NOTES TO NEWS EDITORS:
For further information, please ring: Cheryll Adams, lead
professional officer, strategy & practice development 07712 678
281; Karen Reay, national officer, health 07798 531 004; Obi
Amadi, lead professional officer, policy & external affairs
07780 955 936; Shaun Noble, communications officer (health sector)
020 7420 8951 or 07768 693 940
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