Worried parents are inundating a private healthcare firm with requests for the meningitis B vaccine.
Derek Ramsay, owner of JDR healthcare, which has clinics in Perth and Kirkcaldy, says he has as many children on his current waiting list as he has treated in the past two years.
He puts the surge of interest down to the story of two-year-old Faye Burdett, who died of meningitis on Valentine’s Day after fighting for 11 days.
He said: “We’ve gone from a waiting list of 15 children to over 300 in the last two days. We’ve been offering it for two years and we’ve already done 300 children. It’s down to the poor little girl on Facebook.
“It’s a shame we are having to put parents on hold. The problem is supply GlaxoSmithKline are saying they can’t supply properly until June.
“As soon as we have the supply we can start getting people in. If I had the vaccine today I’d have them in tomorrow.
“My background is critical care nursing and I’ve nursed children with meningitis and adults with it it’s a horrible disease.”
He also backed a petition launched by Faye’s mother Jenny to expand the provision of the meningitis B vaccine to older children.
“It would be great if we could give the vaccine to older children the more children that get it the less chance they’ve got of getting the disease.
“It’s not just this one, it’s the ATWY which would be good to give to all children. That covers you for four further strains and at the moment is given to teenagers,” he said.
“I’m trying to keep this one a little bit cheaper as I think it’s such a good vaccine we charge £95 (per injection), normally it’s about £130 or £140. We provide it for as low as we possibly can.
“When you are making a lot of money out of these things you are playing on parents’ fears.
“Healthcare shouldn’t be a business a good vaccine provides good protection for horrible diseases.”
Meningitis campaigner Alan Glynn backed Mr Ramsay, saying: “I’m pleased that parents are taking the threat seriously but it shouldn’t be the case that they need to pay for it privately, it should be mandatory on the NHS.”