Family doctors in the North say they are "annoyed and frustrated" over a shortage of a new vaccine against meningitis which was introduced yesterday as part of a £11 million mass immunisation programme.
Dr Raymond Shearer, a spokesman for the North's Council for General Practitioners, said doctors were "frustrated at the lack of availability and distribution" of the new vaccine, which will be given to babies and young people as part of a campaign which gets under way next week.
However, the Northern Ireland Health Minister, Mr George Howarth, explained that the vaccine against the Cstrain of the disease had been licensed only last week, and there had been no opportunity to stockpile supplies.