MMR message from surgery -claim my 17 year old "may not have had both jabs"

[bellinisurge]

Daughter had a message from GP surgery which came to me. It said she may not have had both doses of MMR according to her records.
Obviously it's some round robin sent to everyone within a certain age range to get everyone jabbed. As they should.

But it obviously isn't checked against her actual record.
So I had to waste my time and the surgery's time checking her record.

Her birth and the aftermath was very traumatic and very badly handled by the local NHS provision. It would not have surprised me to learn they fecked up her records.

Just venting at the time wasting incompetence. And I am firmly pro-vaccines.

The irony of all this is that I've never had measles, I've never been jabbed - born in the 1960s - and so I am potentially vulnerable to it. As I have MS, getting measles could be a catastrophe. And I can't get a straight answer out of anyone medical professional (including MS specialists) about whether I should have the jab because it's a live vaccine. A live vaccine can also be a problem for people with MS.
I would have a bath in it if it was available to me.

People with long term conditions who can't have vaccines is the reason it's really important everyone else does get vaccinated. Vaccines break the chain of infection so that it's much less likely to get to the vulnerable.

I had this when I was roughly your daughter’s age (I’m 32 now), I was hauled in for another dose at about age 18. Supposedly they thought I’d never had the second one.

They later went through my records when I started working in healthcare, and realised I’d already had the two doses, in childhood, and never needed the other one. So in effect it was an extra dose. It’s never caused me any ill effect, I’m direct patient facing so I’m quite glad of the more recent dose!

A few classmates at the same surgery had the same experience - we were all born in 1991, I think 5 or 6 of us ended up being given an extra dose. Odd!!

You sound like my parents. We had a huge discussion about this recently that turned quite heated. My parents and DH and I are all firmly pro-vaccine but we fell out over this.

I'm 45. Had measles jabs as per normal schedule so at a few months plus pre-school age I think. In the mid-90s there was concern about measles immunity dropping so a letter was sent to all year 10s as I was then saying it was recommended we all got another one as we might have missed it or the previously thought of as life-long immunity might have worn off.

My parents refused it on the grounds that the information wasn't clear and they had no evidence I was suddenly not immune and that they were fudging their answers.

DH and I were firmly of the opinion that that's fine. If it means that some teens who are already covered get a dose as well as some who had missed it get up to date because it's blanket advice that's fine.

It was an interesting fundamental disagreement on community versus individual.

So in OP's case I don't see the issue either. Maybe your child was already covered, loads won't be. If you were sure she was you didn't need to follow it up. If she ended up having an extra dose it doesn't matter. But some who aren't covered might now get what they need. Which makes it worth it.

We got a letter too for MMR. I had to spend time digging out the red book, checking it against the vaccination schedule, couldn't speak to anyone on the phone so went in to the surgery to double check we had done everything on the schedule. We were fine! The GP said it had been coded incorrectly and they would fix it.

Still got a second MMR letter a month later. 🙄🙄🙄

Agree, what a waste of time.

@DappledThings , I see that point. But I am also worried about inaccurate records. The letter said "your records show you might not have had the vaccination".

Which SHOULD be clearly wrong. Why would her records not show she had the vaccine.

It would have been better to be honest and say "this is a reminder to all 16-18 year olds to check their vaccination status and contact us if they think they didn't get the full MMR"

My two kids 19 and 20 received a text from the drs and I know they had all there injections when younger .

i just think that they don’t have the same system as they do now where every thing is in computers now so they don’t have all the information on there.

sal

I got the same for dd. When I phoned up to check the receptionist started checking my MMR 😁 but yes it is some centrally held thing. My GP records show she's had both, no idea why it hasn't made it onto the centrally system.

We had this as well. I know DD had both jabs because they jabbed the second dose earlier due to a measels outbreak in London in 2008.

I do have her red book, buried underneath tons of boxes as we are renovating.

I often wonder how good the electronic records are for babies/toddlers back then as everything was just written down in the red book, I never saw the nurse updating her computer.