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Vaccines: poor access and fragmented healthcare could be behind falling uptake, says watchdog

BMJ 2019; 367 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l6211 (Published 25 October 2019) Cite this as: BMJ 2019;367:l6211
  1. Elisabeth Mahase
  1. The BMJ

The abolition of primary care trusts in England as part of the 2012 Health and Social Care Act led to inconsistent delivery of the vaccination programme and may have contributed to the decline in preschool vaccination rates, the public spending watchdog has said.1

The National Audit Office’s report said that when NHS England took responsibility for commissioning vaccine call and recall in 2013 it didn’t set out the requirements of GPs. This meant that the way healthcare professionals reminded parents to vaccinate their children was inconsistent, it said.

The NAO said that some parents were finding it difficult to access vaccination services because of the “timing and availability of appointments” and that certain communities, such as Travellers, were being …

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