A BABY has been given the wrong injection at a GP's surgery in Atherton, his mother said today.

Emma Hook, aged 23, said she took her 15-week-old son Ben to her family doctor where he was supposed to get his first injections, but he was given the MMR jab instead.

The injection was meant for Miss Hook's other son, two-year-old Scot.

Miss Hook, along with her partner Ian Whalley, have started an official complaint against Dr Satya Sharma, of the Sharma and Gosh surgery in Elmfield Avenue, Atherton, and have sent a letter to the Health Care Commission in Manchester.

Miss Hook, of Devonshire Road, Atherton, says she took her sons to the surgery last Thursday for Scot to have his MMR jab and baby Ben, who was born prematurely, to have his first injections.

She alleges that after Ben was given his injection, she was sent out of the surgery and called back 20 minutes later to be told that he had been given the wrong one.

Miss Hook said: "I went numb, I didn't know what to do. Babies are not supposed to have the MMR jab until they are at least 13 months old.

"We were advised to take him to Wigan Infirmary. When we we got there, staff rang the Department of Health to see what might happen to Ben.

"He was examined by specialists who told us we were lucky he was under six months old as his immune system was not fully developed.

"He had a very high temperature but thankfully he now seems OK. Had he been two months older, what would have happened then?

"I am very angry. How can a doctor mix up two injections and give them to the wrong children? I want to make sure this does not happen to anyone else.

"Dr Sharma has been my doctor for 23 years, but it is the first and last time that Ben will see him. I am seeking to join a new surgery panel."

A spokesman for the surgery said: "There is no evidence giving MMR early causes harm."

A spokesman for the Health Care Commission the couple would have been told that they should first lodge a complaint with the practice manager and the complaints manager at the Primary Care Trust.

said information was confidential. But