Drop-in vaccination clinics to be held all over Milton Keynes for children under five

A series of free vaccination clinics have been set up for local families with children under five.

The ‘catch-up’ clinics are aimed at those children whose vaccinations for diseases such as whooping cough, measles, polio, meningitis, or mumps are not up to date.

Based at a dozen regular venues across the region, the clinics will help provide the protection our community needs against infectious diseases.

The initiative, which runs throughout the summer term and summer holidays, will allow parents to visit a clinic before their children start school or nursery in September.

The sites have been chosen to make it easy for families to drop in, with no booking required.

The NHS catch-up clinics in Milton Keynes are as follow:

Wednesdays: The Rowans Family Centre, Moorfoot, Milton Keynes, MK11 2BD15 May, 12 June, 10 July (1pm to 4pm)

Thursdays: Daisychain Family Centre, Melrose Avenue, West Bletchley, MK3 6PS16 May, 13 June, 11 July (9am to 12:30pm) and 15 August (9am to 3:30pm)

Dr Sanhita Chakrabarti, deputy chief medical director and clinical lead for children’s and maternity services at Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board, said: “There are lots of reasons why your child may not be up to date on all of their vaccinations and we are seeing increased demand for the jabs at present.

"Many parents realise that the time to catch up on missing vaccinations is now, before the infections we’ve seen in other parts of England are repeated in our area, and this is a very sensible approach which I welcome.”

Marimba Carr, Deputy Director of Public Health for Milton Keynes, said: “In recent years, the number of children vaccinated against many serious infections has fallen below the level necessary to prevent an outbreak. Achieving high vaccination coverage across our local population is really important as it also helps to protect infants under one year old and other vulnerable groups who cannot be vaccinated.”

If you have any questions or concerns about childhood vaccinations, please speak to your GP or a health professional.