A WORCESTER GP has joined forces with colleagues, health visitors and paediatricians across the county to urge parents to embrace the MMR vaccine and ward off a measles epidemic.

In an unprecedented move, they have taken out a full page advert in tonight's Evening News, backed by Worcestershire Health Authority, in the form of an open letter to parents.

Their campaign comes after GPs became concerned about the number of young patients failing to keep appointments for their vaccinations.

When they pursued the matter with parents they found many had decided against the triple jab after being alarmed by media reports of a link between the vaccination and autism.

"The situation that started this open letter started in my own practice when figures started going down for MMR," said Dr Richard Whitmore, of Spring Gardens Health centre in Worcester.

"We had had a very good uptake and we have a very good system in my practice for trying to check up on those who have not turned up. We wondered what we could do about it and although we could have written to our patients, we looked at taking it a step further and involving other health professionals whose experiences were the same."

Dr Whitmore, who has been a city GP for more than 20 years, added there were a number of reasons why parents were not having their children vaccinated including concerns raised by media coverage and them opting for single jabs.

WHA spokeswoman Janet Ferguson said the open letter was an unprecedented move.

"Health professionals across the county do not want to see an outbreak of Measles and German Measles here, but the message is not getting across to parents that these are very serious diseases," she said.

The open letter asks parents to trust health professionals and claims "alarming statements concerning the safety of MMR come from well-meaning individuals who, in our opinion, are misguided".

The letter carries the names of more than 80 health workers.