A TODDLER had to be vaccinated after plunging his hand into a box of used needles at Malvern Health Centre.

Pregnant Emma Willems was visiting a midwife at the centre on April 20 when she noticed that her son, who she did not wish to be named, had put his hand into a box of hypodermic needles on a low table next to some toys in the midwife's room.

She immediately pulled the three-year-old away and, fearful that he may have caught something from the used hypodermics, took him to be vaccinated for diseases such as hepatitis B.

Miss Willems, 21, of Clare Road, said she had been visiting the centre all her life and was appalled at what had happened.

"I felt so sick," she said. "It shouldn't have happened, the needles shouldn't have been there in the first place.

"I don't think it's fair that a three-year-old should have to go through this. I wouldn't wish it on any child, let alone my own."

Miss Willems said she received no apology from staff at the centre and has written a letter of complaint to the manager.

Practice manager David Jago said the incident was being investigated and he was unwilling to comment further. A spokesman for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which supplies midwives to the centre, said: "We've received a written complaint, from the family which we will be looking into. We will reply directly to them in due course."