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capital, with a consistent fall in coverage of between 7% and 10% for measles, mumps and rubella and up to 19% for diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough during the past year in which new child health systems have been non-functional.

The report states: “Falls in coverage of this magnitude not only indicate that individual children may be at risk, but also represent a potential major public health threat to the control of the diseases in the community”.

Mr Bacon said: “The national vaccination programme has been one of the NHS’s greatest successes. It relies on straightforward systems which have been developed over the years for sending invitations for vaccination, identifying unvaccinated children, sending reminders and tracking their status for catch-up campaigns. Connecting for Health appears to be destroying this at the touch of a button”.

The reports are contained in CDR Weekly, an official journal of the Health Protection Agency which tracks communicable diseases (CDR Weekly Volume 16, Number 25, published 22 June 2006). The journal states:

“This is the third quarterly report in which national trends could not be reported due to problems with new child health systems being implemented in London. Comparing the year 2005/6 to 2004/5, the number of children in London who are missing from the COVER programme is nearly 18,000 for children turning 12 months, over 14,500 for children turning 24 months and nearly 19,000 for children turning 5 years of age”.

Mr Bacon said there have been contradictory statements by NHS Connecting for Health, the agency running the new NHS IT programme, and the Health Protection Agency.  In March 2006 Dr Martin Baggaley, clinical director for NHS Connecting for Health in London, issued a press statement: “I would like to offer reassurance that the new computer system will not have put individual children at any increased risk of missing their vaccinations”. 

However, the Health Protection Agency’s Communicable Disease Report Weekly for 22 June 2006 states: “the fact that no information has been collected on their vaccination status means that those who have missed out vaccines for whatever reason are unlikely to have been identified and followed-up…If new child systems fail to deliver these functionalities then children risk missing out on vaccination. Thus, they remain unprotected and eventually will catch measles, mumps, and rubella infections.”

Mr Bacon said: “These wildly contradictory statements will cause great confusion and concern for many parents of young children in the London area.  I have asked the health secretary for an urgent explanation of how she plans to solve these problems, which have been created as a direct result of the new NHS IT programme”.

1. To read Mr Bacon's letter to Patricia Hewitt, please click here.
   
2. This is the third quarterly report in which national trends could not be reported due to problems with new child health systems being implemented in London.
   
   Comparing the year 2005/6 to 2004/5, the number of children in London who are missing from the COVER programme is nearly 18,000 for children turning 12 months, over 14,500 for children turning 24 months and nearly 19,000 for children turning 5 years of age. These children are not necessarily unvaccinated, but the fact that no information has been collected on their vaccination status means that those who have missed out vaccines for whatever reason are unlikely to have been identified and followed-up.
   
3. Child Health Systems were created to help manage the national vaccination programme at the local level in the 1980s. The systems were very successful in achieving greatly improved vaccination coverage in the UK through sending invitations for vaccination, identifying unvaccinated children, sending reminders and tracking their status for catchup campaigns. If new child systems fail to deliver these functionalities then children risk missing out on vaccination. Thus, they remain unprotected and eventually will catch measles, mumps, and rubella infections.
   
4. Ten of the 31 London PCTs are using CHIA, a system provided by BT which is the London provider for Connecting for Health, the agency delivering the NHS National Programme for IT. The trend observed in the data of the two CHIA PCTs which submitted data this quarter is worrying, with a consistent fall in coverage of between 7% and 10% for MMR and up to 19% for DTaP-Hib-IPV during the past year in which the child health systems have been non-functional. Falls in coverage of this magnitude not only indicate that individual children may be at risk, but also represent a potential major public health threat to the control of the diseases in the community. Action is being taken to investigate whether the apparent fall just reflects data quality problems or if it is a true fall in coverage which would require all children affected by the disruption to child health services in London to be identified and offered vaccination.

6 July 2006