Borough mum's anger at baby jabs chaos

An under-fire health provider is once again in the spotlight after a mum claimed her baby daughter was prevented from getting her jabs.
Bridgewater Medical CentreBridgewater Medical Centre
Bridgewater Medical Centre

A damning one-star review of Leigh Family Practice, run by SSP, says a woman was given confusing and mixed messages at the surgery over getting the tot’s injections.

She was given her first round of immunisation but never got a six-week check despite her mum regularly asking the practice about it, the review on the NHS website claims.

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However, that meant when she arrived for the second batch of jabs she was turned away and told she needed a check-up first.

The mum also slated communication at the Bridgewater Medical Centre practice and threatened SSP Health with a referral to the General Medical Council for Complaints.

SSP Health has already been heavily criticised by whistleblowers over both Leigh Family Practice and Claire House in Ince, with claims of staff leaving in droves, plummeting morale and poor service being denied by the company. The firm said it could not discuss patients with the media.

The latest complaint, posted with the title ‘You would think babies would be treated better’, read: “My baby girl is due her second round of immunisations. I had an appointment through the post for her to have them.

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“When I’ve tried to sign in at reception she asked if she has had her six to eight-week check. I said ‘no.’ I have persistently asked about this since she was four weeks old. I’ve called the surgery several times and asked in person several times when I’ve been about other things. I get fobbed off every time.

“The receptionist goes off and comes back and says she can’t have her jabs because she’s not had her six-week check. I inform her she’s had her first lot already. She says she knows, that she shouldn’t have had them and the nurse won’t do her second lot without it. I am deeply concerned that if the six-week check is so important why she has been allowed her first ones without it, and since she’s had her first ones already, why can’t she have her second ones without it too?

“I am so upset and angered by this. I have dragged a poorly baby out in the freezing cold against my better judgement because I feel immunisations are so important. If I don’t get a satisfactory response, and phone call with an appointment for both her six-week check and immunisations to be done at the same time, as promised, I shall escalate my complaint.”

The reviewer said she checked with staff if her daughter’s chesty cough and other minor ailments meant she couldn’t have the jabs and was told it was fine as long as the baby did not have a high temperature.

An SSP spokesman said: “We have a duty of confidentiality to our patients and cannot comment on any individual case.”