To think my doctor has overstepped the mark by sending me this letter?

[evilplaguerat]

I am a regular but I'm afraid I have namechanged because there WILL be hostility on this thread

Basically my ds2 hasn't had all his preschool immunisations, because when we received his initial appointment we deferred it because we really weren't sure we wanted him to have the MMR booster (I KNOW what many people think of this attitude, I really do)

I've just had a letter from our GP which starts

"Dear Mum and Dad

It is with some alarm that I've heard from our practice nurse that XXX has not attended multiple appointments for his preschool immunisations"

whatever you think about children not being immunised - does my GP have the right to order me to immunise him? Or am I right in feeling that it's legally our decision and the letter is inappropriate?

To be clear - I'm not asking for views on parents deciding not to immunise (although I realise I am going to get them anyway), I'm asking about the legal position of the parents and the GP and whether he can in fact strong-arm us into having them if we don't want to.

Re the tone of the letter and the implied authority, I can only reiterate what megapixels said at 12:02. Of course the GP is going to assume some tone of authority on this issue as the health of his patients is his responsibility.

And in his mind, there is an obligation to have your child immunised. You need to see it from him point of view. But you are perfectly within your rights to state your own point of view back, if you want to.

yes he has to be constantly thinking about his accountability and being able to back everything up with evidence

From his point of view, he's now covered, the letter is now on file, you cant in years to come sue him saying nobody told you how important the MMR is

Can't blame you for resenting the choice of language in the letter, but I think it comes across more as a ham-fisted attempt at being friendly and informal (not really his strength, perhaps? ).

But the fact that he writes badly doesn't mean he's doing the wrong thing by giving health advice to the parents of one of his patients, IMO.

So YANBU about annoying tone, but YABU to say he shouldn't be able to express a medical opinion.

(Disclaimer: I have taken DS for every immunisation going, so I realise it's not touching a raw nerve with me the way it might with others.)

Do you think maybe they have sent the letter because rather than thinking you have made informed choices about not getting your DC immunused that possibly you just haven't bothered?

I don't mean that this is what you have done, but perhaps they were just checking that you hadn't forgotten for whatever reason or that you didn't realise, etc, rather than it be a letter trying to force you to get DC immunuised.

He has a duty of care to his patients and is doing his job.
How come you feel 'strong armed' against your will? .....does this letter mean you're now getting it done then?

I get them all the time telling me about the risks I am putting my children at I just put them in the bin and don't give them another moments heads space.

Had the appointments been sent through the post to you? (that's what happens here, that's why I ask) If so, had you cancelled them when you knew you didn't want to use them?

Maybe it was also meaning something along the lines of 'let us know if you don't want your appointment so we can use them for other people'.

If you had let them know you weren't coming then ignore this!

Also, he may not have written the letter himself so although the tone may be odd I wouldn't read too much into it just be thankful that they've noticed that they've been missed.

I'd rather that than be in a position where I wanted to be reminded and hadn't.

YANBU.

The use of an emotional and subjective term like 'alarm' is highly inappropriate and unnecessary.

Is he alarmed that he won't meet the target uptake required by his practice in order to get his bonus?

OP - Why not ring the GP and tell his why you haven't got your CS immunised and tell him/her that you dontt want to receive any more notices.

You are clearly confident and happy about the stance you are taking so have the balls to ring the GP and tell him/her.

As others have said, the GP is probably only acting on instructions from the PCT to send such a letter and it's probably a standard letter anyway.

I doubt the GP will be that bothered in the big scheme of things.

Message withdrawn

it probably says 'to mum and dad' cos they send them out in batches and it saves changing the title every time.

he is alarmed, so he told you.

you are alarmed that he is alarmed, so tell him.

YABU. He is bound to remind you if you are his patient. He isn't going to bother writing a personal letter. Just ignore it if you want to-like any other junk mail.

i've missed two appointments to have DD2's pre-school boosters. she's 3.

oops.

not because i have reservations about hte injections, but because i forgot about them both times.

Of course the decision is yours to assist the increased risk to the rest of the population. Good for you that with very limited information you made a stupid ill thought out choice. Not even bothering to get single imms.

I think it's great that a doctor, who has medical facts and stats, would advise you to get your child immunised.

I think if you're not immunised (aside from children with good reasons like immune compromised) you can't attend state school.

yippee, the first plain rude and ignorant post

you'd be wrong there posieparker, my children have a perfect right to attend state school. But if you're not happy with the law as it stands, you could always withdraw yours.

To be fair - it is the doctor's responsibility to ensure that you have the information and the opportunity to have your child immunised.

Have you explained that you do not wish to have your child immunised, and have you ensured that this decision is documented in your child's medical records? Otherwise, how is the doctor to know that you either haven't received the letters, or have just forgotten/not got round to making an appointment?

Reminds me of being deluged with ruddy appointments for the MMR that I hadn't asked for and hadn't made (ds had singles, the clinic gave me a letter which I handed into the surgery to go on ds's file).

I did phone up to cancel the first three but after that I got fed up - every blasted week there would be another demand to present my son at specific time. Not even 'the clinic runs between 2 and 4' but 'you have an appointment for at 3.15'.

The letters were sent out by the PCT rather than my GP, but eventually I called the surgery and said, as you know, my son has had singles, check his file, I shall be ignoring any more letters from the PCT. Surgery was fine about it, PCT eventually gave up.

I've said at least twice that I AM planning to take him for all vacs apart from the MMR booster - I was taking the time I felt I needed to read and inform myself before deciding how best to proceed

I wouldn't have minded a stadard letter reminding me that it it NHS policy to recommend that children have these vacs and inviting me to discuss it should I wish to.

But this wasn't a standard letter - it was a paternalistic and patronising personal note which he had no business sending, IMO.

This isn't about whether or not children should have the jabs, it's about how the GP should approach it appropriately with parents.

YANBU about the wording and there is no legal requirement for you to have your child vaccinated.

He is in the right to send the letter, as it might have been the case that you were incompetent or had forgotten them, or had fallen under the radar (as my DS did); but the alarm bit is unnecessary.

I would not be offended, its not rude, he is a doctor, generally they are rather forward with their opinions.

I for one have not had my dd immunised with the mmr, this is after lengthy research and specific family problems that both I and her father have, these are known to be precursers for problems related with the mmr, so I have told the doc and his nurse, they nodded, agreed that I have the right to chose, and that was that, nobody elses business.

My dd will be having the seperate jabs though this coming few weeks, although not because of arsey folk that like to shout the odds I may add, because I want to protect my child, hence me not injecting her with a lethal cocktail.

Pretty insulting to suggest that the doctor is trying to hit targets for money reasons, do you think maybe they want to hit targets because thats what saves lives?

I think yuo should count yourself lucky that you live in a country that gives your children completely free healthcare, some of us wish we had the same.

JoPie - fact is, a significant proportion of a GP's pay is based on hitting targets like % of children having MMR/women having cervical smears/making sure all diabetic patients are on a list and get reviewed regularly.

It's not a smear. It's called the Quality and Outcomes Framework if you want to look it up.