Shropshire Star

More than 1,000 children in Shropshire not registered with a GP

More than 1,000 babies and small children in Shropshire are not registered with a doctor, and could potentially be missing health checks.

Published

Doctors have warned children could be at risk of missing out on key vaccinations and check-ups because their parents haven’t signed them up with a surgery.

NHS figures show there are 14,075 newborns and children under five registered with GP practices in the NHS Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group area.

However, the latest ONS figures put the number of children aged four and under in the CCG’s area at 15,120.

This means around 1,050 children are not on a GP’s register.

In the NHS Telford and Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group area there are 10,753 newborns and children under five registered with GP practices, but ONS numbers say there are 11,103 children aged four and under in the area.

This means around 350 children are not on a GP’s register.

Across England, more than 123,000 children – four per cent of the population – are not registered with a doctors’ surgery, the figures suggest.

Professor Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, has urged parents to ensure their children are registered.

Diseases

She said: “I find it deeply concerning that so many children appear to be unregistered with a GP, at a time where we are seeing an emergence of preventable and deadly diseases such as the measles, record levels of childhood obesity and its associated conditions, and with 34 per cent of all child deaths in the UK considered avoidable – the vast majority of which are in infancy.”

The NHS offers regular health checks for babies until they are two years old, to monitor their development.

They are also given a personal child health record, known as a red book, in which parents and health professionals keep a log of their vaccinations and measurements.

In 2017-18, just 87 per cent of children in England had received both the recommended MMR jabs – which protects against measles, mumps and rubella – by the time they turned five.

At least 95 per cent coverage is needed to lower the risk of an outbreak, according to the World Health Organisation.

A monthly snapshot of GP patients was taken on January 1, while the most recent population estimates are for mid-2017.