Hundreds of children and teenagers in the Black Country are on waiting lists for vital vaccinations, it was revealed today.

In Dudley alone, there are 601 youngsters currently in the queue for immunisations at surgeries across the borough. More than three quarters of them are waiting for the once-controversial MMR jab against measles, mumps and rubella.

The jab had been linked to conditions including autism which deterred parents from getting the injection.

NHS Dudley has asked GP practices to run more immunisation clinics to help reduce waiting times for patients aged between 13 and 19 months.

They say the backlog has been caused by the national MMR catch up campaign which aims to ensure patients who were too old to be eligible for the vaccine when it was first introduced in 1990 are immunised. This has increased the workload for surgeries.

During the first three months of 2010/11, 91.5 per cent of two-year-olds in Dudley had received their MMR vaccine against a target of 95 per cent.

A report which will be discussed by the trust board at a meeting tomorrow said: “GPs have been encouraged, for the second time since May, to run more immunisation clinics to clear waiting lists.”

Chief executive Sarah Dugan said: “We recognise the importance of childhood immunisations and we are now looking in more detail at where and why these waits are happening.

“We will continue to work closely with our GP partners to resolve this issue and I would urge anyone whose child has not been immunised to contact their GP practice.”

NHS Dudley, which oversees healthcare in the borough, also missed targets for diphtheria, tetanus and polio vaccines during the first quarter of 2010/11 with 95.8 per cent of one-year-olds having been immunised against a target of 97 per cent.

Meanwhile in Walsall, 99.1 per cent of two-year-olds had received their MMR, diptheria, tetanus and polio vaccines. The figure is the third highest in the country.