Private clinics accused of cashing in on meningitis jab

Medical centres said to be exploiting parents’ desperation by hiking prices, amid a worldwide shortages of the vaccine Bexsero

Private clinics have been accused of “cashing in” on the increased demand for meningitis vaccinations by charging up to £750 for a child’s treatment.

This is more than 12 times the cost of the same three-dose course on the NHS, which is around £60.

Parliament are expected to discuss reversing a controversial decisionto limit the meningitis B vaccine to babies under nine months after MPs acknowledged that a record-breaking online petition had to be "taken seriously".

The petition, which has been signed by more than 800,000 people maing it the most signed in parliamentary history, calls for all children under the age of 11 to be given the vaccine.

It follows the death of two-year-old Faye Burdett, from Maidstone, Kent, who died on Valentine's Day after fighting the infection for 11 days. Her story, told by her mother Jenny, has been widely shared on social media.

 

Separately, Matt Dawson, the former England rugby union captain, revealed that his toddler son has survived meningitis after "two weeks of hell".

The BBC Question of Sport star shared a series of heartbreaking images charting his child's recovery with his more than 250,000 Twitter followers.

Now private medical centres are accused of exploiting parents’ desperation - and worldwide shortages of the vaccine Bexsero - by increasing the price of vaccinations.

Demand for the vaccine has reached such levels that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) says it cannot keep up with orders.

The NHS programme will be unaffected, but private clinics in the UK have been advising parents that they cannot start any new courses of the vaccine.

• Baby dies of meningitis after being born one month too late for jab deadline

The clinic said that the new batch of vaccines were more expensive for them to buy, adding: “We appreciate this price is higher than the usual price and if you wish to remain on the waiting list until the summer stocks are released, we will then be returning to the previous price."

GSK said in a statement "Due to unexpected global demand for Bexsero during 2015, we are experiencing supply constraints during the first half of this year.”

"Due to unexpected global demand for Bexsero during 2015, we are experiencing supply constraints during the first half of this year"

GlaxoSmithKline

Sue Davie, head of the charity Meningitis Now, told The Daily Mail: "It would clearly be wrong for anyone to profiteer from this situation. This vaccine should not only be available to those who can afford it."

Ian Liddell-Grainger, a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Child Health and Vaccine Preventable Diseases, said: "For clinics to profiteer on something which is affecting people's health and lives is disgraceful.

"People's lives are being played with. To charge £250 a dose really is disgusting. I will bring this up in Parliament if I can."