Children swine flu jab plan in chaos

Wednesday 9th December 2009, 10:44AM GMT.

Plans to vaccinate young children against swine flu were in chaos today after GPs and the Government failed to reach a deal on how to deliver the jab.

Health bosses in Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin will now have to act quickly to find an alternative way to inoculate youngsters aged six months to five years.

They could possibly reach a local deal with GP practices or use their own staff from the two primary care trusts, such as health visitors and district nurses.

Lindsay MacHardy, interim director of public health programmes at Shropshire County PCT, also speaking on behalf of NHS Telford and Wrekin, said the trusts were working to make sure that an “effective and coordinated” response was achieved.

“This includes providing suitable vaccination arr-angements for the priority groups,” she said.

Under the Government’s mass vaccination programme, GPs have been receiving £5.25 per patient for at-risk groups, including people with asthma, diabetes or heart disease.

Ministers had offered doctors the same amount per dose plus a “small concession” to vaccinate the children’s group. But the two sides were unable to come to an agreement yesterday.

Meanwhile, the effectiveness of Tamiflu was also being questioned today. Research in the British Medical Journal found there was no clear evidence that the antiviral prevented complications like pneumonia.

View more: Shropshire news, Swine Flu news, Telford & Wrekin news.