A MUM has spoken of her anger after her four-year-old daughter was given the controversial MMR vaccine by mistake at a Basingstoke doctors surgery.

The practice manager of The Gillies and Overbridge Medical Partnership has apologised to Hayley Campbell following the blunder at Overbridge Surgery in Worting Road.

The surgery has fully accepted that the MMR vaccine was given to Miss Campbell's daughter Georgina without her mother's consent and is now reviewing its procedures. Miss Campbell had signed a form opting her daughter out of the controversial jab - which some critics have claimed causes autism - two years ago.

Miss Campbell, who has now switched her family to a new surgery, feels angry and upset that the mix-up occurred.

She told The Gazette the mistake happened on January 8, when she took Georgina and her five-month-old son Jayden to Overbridge Surgery. Georgina was due to have pre-school inoculations. However, unbeknown to her mum, the youngster was also given an MMR booster jab.

Miss Campbell first became aware that her daughter may have received the MMR jab when, on January 16, she received a letter from the surgery saying that Georgina was due for a second MMR jab in February.

The mum contacted the surgery the next day and was told that Georgina had been administered the MMR booster jab on January 8.

Miss Campbell, who lives in Basingstoke, told The Gazette she did not want Georgina to receive the MMR vaccination because a family member had suffered an adverse reaction to the jab.

She said: "It affects some kids differently, but I didn't want to take that chance."

Miss Campbell said that she was not told what specific injections were being administered when she was at the surgery on January 8.

She said: "I signed consent forms for Georgina to have injections when she was four weeks old. I withdrew from the MMR. When I realised they had given it to her, I saw red. I can't believe something like this has happened."

In a letter to Miss Campbell this week, practice manager Des McCarthy said: "I have investigated matters and although there are some minor points on which I am still unclear, we fully accept that the MMR booster was given to Georgina without your consent.

"We accept full responsibility for that and apologise unreservedly. The whole nursing department is very upset that this should have happened and would be happy to meet with you if you feel that would help.

"It is important that something positive can come from such an unfortunate event and, to that extent, I have recorded this a 'significant event'. Quite apart from the complaints procedure, this alerts other agencies to what has happened and forces a review of procedures.

"You can be sure that we have already started the process of changing what nurses say to patients before any injection is administered, as although the present system has been satisfac-tory for thousands of patients to date, it failed in your case and requires immediate review.

"May I finish by confirming our apology and given that we cannot undo what has happened, I hope this letter will offer some confidence that we take the matter very seriously and are responding accordingly."