Unvaccinated people are primarily being affected
The Department of Health and Social Care has announced it will offer “additional support” after an outbreak of a disease ‘thought to have been defeated’. It said GPs would get help to safeguard children against life-threatening illnesses, following a measles outbreak in north London.
Proposed changes to the GP contract could see thousands of children across the nation shielded from “deadly and highly infectious diseases”, the department stated. This follows the measles outbreak in the borough of Enfield, where 50 confirmed cases of the virus were recorded up to February 16, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
The outbreak is primarily affecting unvaccinated children, and the DHSC warned that in the most severe cases, children have ended up in hospital battling “a serious but preventable disease”.
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting said: “Vaccinations are safe and they save lives. The return of diseases we thought we’d defeated, with children in hospital as a result, is entirely preventable.
“With our investment and modernisation in general practice, GPs will be backed to protect children and prevent the risk of further outbreaks like we’ve seen Enfield. Every child deserves a healthy, happy start to life.”
The revised GP contract for 2026/27, set to be revealed this week, will incorporate further measures to help GPs “save young lives and shield families from preventable illness”. This will be achieved by bolstering vaccination delivery in the areas where it is most needed, the DHSC confirmed.
Under the existing system, only GP surgeries that are achieving high vaccination rate targets earn additional incentive payments. In areas with lower vaccination rates, surgeries are frequently “missing out” on securing extra payments, even when they are recording year-on-year improvements in vaccination rates.
‘Improvement incentives’
The DHSC said the next GP contract will “help change this by providing improvement incentives that recognise those practices making progress”. It said these additional resources can be used to “reinvest in outreach” and to “follow up with families with unvaccinated children”.
It also stated that improvement payments will provide GPs with the resources they need to help protect children who are currently missing out, and “reduce health inequalities that leave some babies at far greater risk than others simply because of where they live”.
Ruth Rankine, director of the Primary Care Network and neighbourhood lead at the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, said: “Primary care leaders welcome this announcement and see it as a fair and supportive approach for general practice, particularly for those working in communities with high levels of unmet need.
“Increasing childhood vaccination uptake can be challenging, especially in areas where coverage has fallen and the risk of outbreaks has risen, so additional support for practices to work with families will be vital in helping protect babies and children from serious, preventable diseases.”
The measles outbreak follows the World Health Organisation’s announcement that the UK can no longer be regarded as a country that has successfully eradicated the disease.
