Some doctors who are are struggling to meet targets for administering the MMR vaccine say that it should be up to the Government to find ways to enforce them. Immunisation levels have dropped sharply in recent years because of fears that the MMR vaccine may be associated with conditions such as autism.
Dr Mustafa Kapasi, chair of Inverclyde Local Health Care Co-operative, said measures such as barring unvaccinated children from school or nursery had been taken in other countries, including the USA. He said, 'We should not as GPs have to force people into getting vaccinations. The Government should take control of the immunisation policy and not let us be its guardian. We are family physicians and do not want to quarrel with our patients. We also don't want to feel guilty about children developing autism by chance after we have forced them to be immunised.
'We cannot immunise if the patient refuses, but if we don't reach targets then we don't get paid. If it is Government policy then the Government should enforce it and to deny a nursery place is better than denying medical services.'
A spokesman for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities said such a decision would have to be taken with extreme caution. 'We'd expect Scotland's councils to work on the advice of the Chief Medical Officer. They would need conclusive medical evidence before deciding anything.' A Scottish Executive spokes-man said, 'The Scottish Executive has no plans to prevent children who have not received the MMR vaccination from going to nursery. We believe that parents are able to make a balanced and informed decision on whether children receive the vaccine.'
A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills in Westminster said, 'Vaccination is not compulsory, and while various people have raised the issue of linking it to school or nursery admission it would be very difficult to make it a statutory requirement and it would bring the danger of appearing to coerce and force people to be vaccinated.
'Individual nurseries could make it a requirement for children to be vaccinated, but that would be up to them and not on our advice.'