DOCTORS are planning mass vaccinations across the capital this winter to protect children against measles, mumps and rubella.

From this month, primary care trusts and the Health Protection Agency will be launching a range of measures designed to improve uptake of vaccination jabs that could save lives.

Nurses are planning to go into schools as part of their mass vaccination scheme.

Ealing Primary Care Trust said every school in Ealing has signed up for the campaign and letters will go out after November 23.

Among five-year-olds the current uptake for the first dose of the MMR vaccine is just 80 per cent while the second dose, which ensures a child is fully protected, is just 58 per cent.

The World Health Organisation recommends take-up rates of 95 per cent.

Professor Sue Atkinson, regional director of public health for London, said: "Thousands of children in London are now at risk of contracting measles, mumps and rubella following several years of decline in numbers protected against the MMR vaccine.

"It is vital that we increase the numbers of our children protected against these serious diseases as soon as possible to prevent larger epidemics, which would see many children hospitalised and some dying."

Disease specialist Dr Graham Frazer said more than 90,000 primary school children and 180,000 pre-school children are now thought to be susceptible to measles.

He said: "Efforts to offer catch-up vaccinations to primary school children will be particularly effective in reducing the risk of wider community outbreaks."

He added primary school children often pass the infection on to younger siblings. From this month participating schools will send out information to parents and invite them to have their children vaccinated at school if they have not received the two doses.

Parents will be asked to sign a consent form before their child is vaccinated against the diseases.

There is concern amongst parents about the safety of the triple jab with some research linking it to autism.

Children will also be vaccinated at local doctors' surgeries and by health visitors.