February 17, 2002

Doctors cash in on MMR fear with £280 charge for single jabs
Sue Leonard and Rosie Waterhouse

DOCTORS are cashing in on public worries over the MMR vaccine by charging fees of up to £280 for a set of three single jabs that can be bought for as little as £32.

Peter Copp, a GP running a private clinic in Edinburgh, has treated 2,000 children over the past 18 months. Their families have paid a maximum of £280 for the three jabs, creating an income of about £450,000.

Private clinics are opening around the country to exploit the MMR scare and the subsequent demand for single vaccines that it has caused. Many are recruiting NHS staff to meet the demand.

This weekend one company, Direct Health 2000, set up a clinic in Darlington, the constituency of Alan Milburn, the health secretary. The 400 patients booked will pay a total of £96,000 for courses of single jabs.

There is a huge variation in prices around the country, from £120 for the first course of three jabs to £280. Children are meant to receive their first set of three inoculations as one MMR jab between 13 and 15 months. A second MMR vaccination is given as a pre-school booster at the age of four. So the cost of having all six jabs separately is £240-£560.

Clinics say the mark-up is necessary to pay for the high cost of overheads such as rent, private staff and advice to parents. Some also claim that they pay as much as £80 for the set of three vaccines.

Demand is unprecedented. Last week one private clinic in Lincolnshire received 10,000 telephone calls a day. The pressure group Jabs, which campaigns for single vaccines, is receiving more than 3,000 inquiries a day.

Some NHS GPs are also prepared to give three separate injections, despite advice from the chief medical officer that the MMR is the safest way of protecting children.

Doctors can provide jabs singly for NHS patients who pay the pharmacist for the vaccine on a “named patient basis”, meaning they accept liability. GPs can charge private patients typically about £60 per jab.

• A prominent supporter of the government’s policy on MMR has made a £50,000 donation to Labour, it emerged last night. Paul Drayson, chief executive of PowderJect Pharmaceuticals, made a personal gift to the party two months after his company had won a £17m contract to produce tuberculosis jabs for the NHS, it was reported. PowderJect does not produce the MMR vaccine.

Additional reporting: Lois Rogers