By Stephen Robinson, 16 August 2011
Responding to a government consultation, the BMA was ?concerned? about the plans and said there was no evidence it would improve vaccination uptake rates.
It also believes the government over-egged its figures on the potential savings that could be made by moving to a central purchase model.
The DoH launched a consultation following reports of localised vaccine shortages last winter, which resulted in the release of old stocks of H1N1 pandemic vaccine to fill the gap.
The BMA blamed health secretary Andrew Lansley?s decision not to run the usual flu vaccination advertisement campaign in England on a late surge in requests for vaccination, which affected availability of flu shots.
The union said: ?We believe that one of the reasons why the uptake remained low in England was due to the lack of a national advertising campaign, and this needs to be urgently addressed before the coming flu season.?
As GP reported in June, the plans would cut an average �2,500 from average practice income.
In its consultation response, the BMA said: ?Given that there was no uplift to GP net pay in 2011/2, the BMA is extremely concerned about yet another potential loss of GPs? income streams and fails to see how central procurement would increase immunisation rates.?
It cast doubt on the government?s potential savings, estimated at up to �25 million, saying the predictions are ?not evidence based?.
Concluding, the BMA said: ?We believe that moving central procurement of seasonal flu vaccine would risk making matters worse.?
It said the current system ?works well?, shown by the high vaccination rates in at-risk groups last year, despite the 'difficulties' faced by practices from the late surge caused by the lack of an advertisement campaign.
Instead of scrapping the current system, it needs to be supported by giving practices and PCTs legal permission to share stocks, and for PCTs and PCT clusters to hold emergency stocks for ?exceptional circumstances?, the BMA said.
The BMA pointed out that Northern Ireland, which has a central procurement model, still experienced vaccine shortages last winter.
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