The Government is attempting to prevent private clinics from distributing single vaccinations of measles, mumps and rubella, it was revealed yesterday.

As the Department of Health announced that it was putting a further £300,000 forward for another three years of research into the combined MMR vaccine, an organisation which delivers the single vaccines for parents in the Westcountry said that it was being prevented from buying the vaccines in bulk.

Direct Health 2000, which has four clinics in the region, is receiving an increasing number of calls from parents who fear that the combined MMR vaccine is not safe for their children, and want single jabs instead.

DH2 spokeswoman Kathryn Durnford said that the organisation was treating up to 200 children a day in the region with the single vaccinations.

Recent reports suggest that the MMR combined vaccine has links to Crohn's disease and autism.

But Miss Durnford said that despite an increase in the numbers of parents requesting single measles, mumps and rubella vaccines, they Government was making it very difficult for the organisation to buy the vaccines in bulk.

"What right have the Government got to prevent parents paying for private single vaccines for their children?" she said.

"Provisionally, the news that they are funding a further three years of study into the MMR combined vaccine is welcome, but we have to ensure that the research we are getting will provide us with answers to the safety of this vaccine - until it is proved 100 per cent safe, I don't think anyone will be comfortable with it.

"But they are still making it difficult for us to buy the single vaccines, which parents have a right to choose if they want."

Miss Durnford said that since the MMR safety concerns had first come to light, DH2 had seen a massive shift in public confidence towards single vaccines.

"Our clinics are full to brimming and our national call centre is being inundated daily with calls from worried parents," she added.

Lee Curnow, a mother of two from Camborne who campaigned for DH2 to come to the Westcountry with single vaccines, said the Government trying to prevent the distribution of the single jabs was "deplorable."

She added: "I fear, and I know, that after this latest period of study on the MMR vaccine, it will be a whitewash and the Government will tell us the vaccine is safe no matter what.

"They have even introduced the MMR and chicken pox vaccine in trials in the north, which I think is ludicrous - we haven't even got the triple vaccine right yet, never mind quadruple.

"Parents are very protective of our children and we just want them to be safe. I think that we have every right to choose the single vaccine over the MMR jab, and for the Government to try and prevent that is deplorable - it is just bully boy tactics because they want us to choose MMR."

The DoH confirmed yesterday it was providing top-up funding for more research into the MMR vaccine.

A DoH statement said: "This study is part of an on-going programme of work. Our position remains that based on the best available scientific evidence MMR is the most effective way to protect children against measles, mumps and rubella."

mrobinson@westcountryrobinson.co.uk