Ministers and doctors fail to agree on swine flu jabs
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Your support makes all the difference.The Government and GPs have failed to reach an agreement on the next stage of the swine flu vaccination programme, it was announced today.
Ministers had offered doctors £5.25 per dose plus a "small concession" to vaccinate the next group - healthy children aged from six months to five.
GPs have already been receiving £5.25 per patient for at-risk groups, including people with asthma, diabetes or heart disease, plus a relaxation on some of their requirements under the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF).
The Department of Health said today vaccinating under-fives would begin before Christmas anyway, with local NHS trusts told to implement the next stage of the vaccination programme.
Some trusts have already approached GP surgeries on an individual basis, with some saying they will take part despite the lack of a national agreement.
More than three million healthy children under five across the UK are to be offered the swine flu jab.
A statement from the Department of Health said: "NHS Employers has been in discussion with the British Medical Association's General Practitioners' Committee to seek a national agreement on the vaccination of this group of children through GP practices.
"This has unfortunately not proved possible. Ministers have today therefore asked primary care trusts (PCTs) to put local plans into place to vaccinate this group.
"We hope many GPs will still decide to vaccinate under-fives.
"But where GP practices do not wish to vaccinate this group, PCTs will determine whether vaccinations will be offered through other local GP practices, their directly managed staff (eg health visitors, district nurses etc) or by arranging with alternative providers (eg community or hospital paediatric services, pharmacies etc).
"Parents of children in the priority group will receive information about swine flu vaccinations as soon as these plans have been finalised."
Health Secretary, Andy Burnham, said: "It is disappointing that we have not been able to come to a national agreement with GPs to vaccinate children from six months to five-years-old.
"But we are now getting on with the job and asking local health trusts to put local plans in place so that vaccination of these children can begin seamlessly.
"The supply of vaccine is increasing and we should therefore be able to meet the demand for vaccine and begin vaccinating children before Christmas.
"I want to take this opportunity to thank NHS staff for their exemplary efforts to put in place this vaccination programme swiftly and remind people in the priority groups for vaccination to ensure they are protected."
In a letter to all GPs, Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the BMA's GPs Committee, said it had not been possible to reach an agreement.
He said: "We sincerely wanted to be able to reach a national agreement with the UK governments about a process for vaccinating the under-fives against swine flu.
"Unfortunately this has not been possible, because the Government would not support adequate measures to help free up staff time.
"At the busiest time of the year for general practice, with surgeries already dealing with the additional work of vaccinating the first wave of at-risk groups, we felt this was vital in order to ensure this next phase could be carried out quickly.
"We would encourage Local Medical Committees and Primary Care Organisations (PCOs) to put in place arrangements that are sensitive to the workload pressures in their area. These should be agreed as soon as possible.
"We appreciate that parents of young children might be worried when they hear that there will be no national framework and we want to assure them that this does not mean their children will not be vaccinated.
"We know many PCOs have already been in contact with GPs in their area to talk about making local arrangements.
"Given that most practices are also currently working through their vaccination programme for the first wave of at-risk groups, we don't anticipate delays in the vaccination programme for the under-fives getting under way."
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