A clinic offering an alternative to the MMR vaccine will continue despite its doctor, Peter Mansfield, facing a General Medical Council hearing.

The Desumo clinic is working with parents from Ledbury on the initiative of local mum Deborah Ryding, who wanted single measles, mumps and rubella jabs because of concerns over the combined vaccine.

Worcestershire Health Authority has reported the Worcester-based clinic to the GMC, "in order that the important question of patient safety could be satisfactorily considered".

Mrs Ryding said: "This leaves us still carrying on. We have children half way through their vaccination programmes and, until the hearing, we don't know how it's going to go. "Dr Peter Mansfield, our GP, hasn't been told to stop. Parents have the right to choose and only on this issue are we not allowed to make choices for our children.

"Dr Mansfield has gone against NHS directives but has done nothing unethical, in my opinion, and he has a lot of letters of support."

Mrs Ryding turned to Desumo clinic earlier this year because she believed her two-year-old Michael may have had a reaction to a combined vaccination, in that case, the triple DTP injection for whooping cough.

Desumo, which charges for individual jabs, comes under the charitable umbrella of the Temple Garth Trust and currently has 600 families on its books.

Parents, who pay for the single jabs, believe combined MMR, favoured by the NHS, may lead to autism or bowel disease in some children. But single jabs mean that there is a longer period when children may be unprotected.

Separate injections are given by Dr Mansfield for Desumo at the Unity House Day Centre, Stanley Road, Worcester.

Prof Brian McCloskey, Worcestershire's director of public health said: "The GMC are the responsible body for examining professional standards and we look forward to their decision in due course."

Dr Mansfield said: "My personal responsibility is at stake here. I could be struck off. I simply have to put my case as best as I can and wait humbly on the decision of the GMC.

"Many parents, thoughtful people, are opting out of MMR because they really want something else and that has not caused an epidemic."