Doctor won't do 8 week jabs

[starlight1111]

So my son needs his 8 week jabs, I rang the surgery, they said their protocol is a 40 minute baby check before they'll let them have the jabs, but the appointment is so long they can only do one a day, the nearest appointment is end of August when he'll be 15 weeks, then after that, I'd need to arrange an appointment for the jabs.
So I said well he needs the jabs way before then. The letter states they need to be done as close to 8weeks as possible.
So by the time he has his 8 weeks jabs he'll have missed the 12 week ones and the 16 week ones will be due.
I was on the phone to the receptionist for ages explaining I'm not happy to wait and who's responsible if my son catches something the jabs are for, I got nowhere and she said you could always change surgery or go private, does anyone know what I can do and what my rights are?

It’s very common these days for babies to not have their first jabs until 12 weeks or later….gp practices don’t have the capacity quite often….it is what is is 🤷‍♀️

if the mother had whooping cough vaccine then her baby will still be protected so not an issue

@Kitkat1523 i definitely didn't have them with my other 2 but they are 22 and 18 so maybe they wasn't about then

That’s awful, especially with the rise in whooping cough.

I would inform your health visitor; submit a formal complaint to the surgery (keep a copy and do not leave without a receipt if you hand deliver, and mark FAO the practice manager), and also complain to your local commissioner (details are all online). Mark as urgent.

Has your local newspaper reported on the rise of whooping coughs and deaths? All our local papers have. Contact them and name and shame the surgery!

So the process in my area is. To book a 6 week GP check up for mum and baby and first set of immunisations (to be done by the nurse) immediately after birth. We had to have the GP check prior to the immunisations, as the nurse will want to know if any medical concerns which will impact the immunisations.

My girls were in special care and the nurses there advised me to book before they even came out of hospital. I remember booking with the GP sat in the hospital canteen. I hadn't registered the birth at this point (as didn't do this until they came home). Was able to register them at the GP with their NHS number as generated at the hospital upon the birth.

This appointment is completely different to a health visitor check.

It's unfortunate that you were not advised to book this appointment after the birth. In terms of the immunisations your baby can still have them though, although they will all be delayed.

The HV can’t do a thing….they are employed by community trusts ….they are not commissioned to deliver on the childhood immunisation schedule…..name and shame them?😂 …..like hundreds of gp practices around the U.K. are exactly the same….they are waaayyyy behind on appointments….just don’t have the staff……no newspaper or media is going to give a shiny shite about this….it’s really not newsworthy
op will get the vaccines late….then book straight back in for then2nd lot 4 weeks later

This doesn't sound right, with my DDs the appointments for vaccinations came through automatically, the practice nurse gives them. Contact your HV

If if helps:
Yes you do need the birth certificate to formally register anyone under the age of 16 to prove you have parental responsibility. You can be seen as a temporary resident before this or occasionally under the mother's registration as an emergency but surgeries try to avoid this especially if a prescription is needed
Nurses give the vaccinations but most surgeries have an established practice of a doctor seeing the child before the vaccination to make sure they are in 'good health' to receive them. However this should not be done if it means a significant delay and there is no guidance to say this had to be done.
With the advent of the Rotarix which needs to be given before 15 weeks (it is part of the first set) all babies need to be seen before the 15 week mark otherwise they miss out on this first dose - it can't be give late
I think your biggest problem is leaving the booking of the appointment so late. Essentially anything healthcare related needs to be planned well in advance.
I would be saying to the practice they need to be seen before 15 weeks but an acknowledgment of perhaps left it a little late

It’s all so broken. How long before we have to book all the postnatal appointments before we get pregnant!

When DD14 was born we couldn’t get a registration appointment within the 6 week deadline. We had all sorts of threatening automatic letters about it. Managed to register her birth when she was 7/8 weeks old but had to travel to another town in the county. Can’t imagine what it’s like there now.

Golly, my children have never had a 40min Gp apt for anything! Sounds very thorough …. I wonder what takes 40 mins?

I work in a doctors surgery and this isn't right. We keep track of all new babies from the discharges we get. A task is then sent to my colleague about new baby, date of birth. She then contacts mum to register baby, and books baby's & mums 6-8 week check, then 8 weeks jabs. We also get notifications from child health when they are due their next lot of jabs. So 9/10 it's us that contact parents to book the appointments.

Some of the horror stories I've read on here about other surgeries makes me so thankful for a great well run surgery I work at.

That's insane! We register babys by a registration form, aslong as they have a NHS number which they are given at birth then surgeries don't need anything to do with the birth certificate.

As a practice nurse, if you wait until 15 weeks your baby will be unable to have the rota virus vaccination. I would speak to your practice manager as this is not good enough. Maybe also call to see if there are any out of hour appointments for vaccinations if they are fully booked in your gp surgery.

@Butterflies1234 thank you for your reply,
The nurse has appointments for the jabs, it's the doctor, they won't allow them to have the jabs until the gp has done the 8 week check and the gp doesn't have an appt till the end of August for that, I was talking to the receptionist for ages and getting nowhere, all she kept saying is what do you expect me to do? We have no appointments, you're not the only unhappy about it, other parents are too!

@starlight1111
I recommend speaking to the practice manager on Monday, in writing. Vaccinations for children should not be delayed especially this long because there are no gp appointments for 6-8 week check. Practice nurses go by the Green Book, in relation to vaccinations.
It states the below:

Delaying primary infant immunisations beyond eight weeks risks leaving babies unprotected against serious infections that can be very severe in the very young, such as whooping cough. The six to eight week baby check is not required as part of the assessment for immunisation, and so the eight week primary immunisations should never be delayed because of any delay in carrying out this examination.

Every effort should be made to ensure that all children and adults are immunised, even if they are older than the scheduled age; no opportunity to immunise should be missed. The type of vaccine and number of doses recommended depends on the age of the individual as some vaccines are not indicated after a certain age. In most instances, this is because the ability to benefit from vaccination is reduced because of lower risk (e.g. whooping cough), or lower effectiveness (e.g. for shingles). The exception is rotavirus vaccine, where vaccination at an older age is more likely to be associated with an adverse event (intussusception) (see Chapter 27b: Rotavirus for more information).

I hope this helps, you should be able to get an appointment at the right interval for primary immunisations

Admittedly easier for me to see the positives now, my DD is 7 months and didn’t catch anything. But I was annoyed for the same reasons as you at the time. I postponed starting going to any baby classes and some travel as a precaution.

@Butterflies1234 thank you for that, I'll quote that in my letter, although all the receptionist kept saying, is, it's protocol to have the 8 week cheek, it's what the gps insist on.
I said I'd like to know why the 8 week check is more important than having the vaccines on time, she said I'll ask the doctor and put the phone down and didn't actually get back to me

Agree this sounds like a bad policy and a bad receptionist but also I wouldn't actually worry too much about a slight delay in the vaccines - you say you're in a rural area so chance of exposure is low and important thing is to get them asap, but a few weeks delay is fine. Lots of parents delay because babe gets a fever, they're busy etc. still get them all at the right intervals - so 4 weeks apart, they don't need to be exactly at the weeks they say.

Basically, don't worry about health of baby, but do keep pressing because it's a stupid policy they have - what if your baby had been sick and needed to see a GP in those first few months!?

They’ve been private practices since the NHS was founded. They are ‘controlled’ at the moment by the regional integrated care boards.

This sounds utterly batshit. There's reasons babies are meant to get specific immunisations at specific ages. It's the same reason that premature babies are given them according to actual age rather than corrected age. I would try your health visitor because they can speak to the surgery about it and can sometimes get them to see sense (like the time mine tried to get me to take my twins for their 6 week checks on different days during Covid times and said I couldn't bring the other one with me. Also the same GP who insisted these 6 week checks had to be done when the twins were 6 weeks corrected age so 20 weeks actual age and also very much still under the care of hospital consultants and a nurse who visited us at home and they even tried to say I had to get one too😂). I would 100% change GP surgeries and explain the urgency of the matter when you go to register at the new one.

Make a written complaint to the practice manager. I have had to do that before. And you're not just doing it for you, you are doing it for all the mums of young babies, some of whom may not be in a position to do it themselves.

I'd give your HV a shout, she may be able to informally advise you how best to get it sorted. It's really not good enough to have such a long delay.

At least 2 health care professionals have said on this thread that one of the vaccines cannot be given as late as they will be if the OP doesn’t get a sooner appointment, so actually I think the OP should worry about this.

Yes it’s 15 weeks for rotavirus……it’s due to the potential risk of intussusception

Incorrect. The first two lots of jabs need to both be done by 24 weeks, so you need to start at 19/20 weeks at the latest (because rota virus needs to be given before then). It's of course best to go as early as possible because that offers maximum protection, but if you live in a low incidence area it's not a huge concern. Obviously if everyone delayed that would be bad as incidence would likely increase, but in this scenario it's not something to specifically worry about.

Info here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-guide-to-immunisations-for-babies-up-to-13-months-of-age/a-guide-to-immunisation-for-babies-up-to-13-months-of-age-from-february-2022