Forty-five per cent of hospital doctors opted not to take the swine flu jab, with the vaccine being the least popular among junior doctors, The Sunday Times has learnt.

A study by respiratory consultant Martin Balzan found that 25 per cent of doctors who chose not to take the jab had not recommended it to their patients.

Moreover, there were two doctors who said they did not recommend it to their patients because they were not convinced it was safe.

It also emerged that only 40 per cent of newly-graduated medics took the jab, preliminary data from a study among 180-odd doctors at Mater Dei Hospital's casualty, medicine and surgery departments found.

The study, submitted to the European Respiratory Society, found that the majority of young doctors who did not take the jab believed they had already contracted swine flu because they were very sick during the autumn months.

However, this breached the guidelines issued by health authorities, who had encouraged everyone to take the jab unless laboratory tests had confirmed they had already contracted the swine flu influenza H1N1. Only 10 doctors fell into this category.

On the other hand, the preliminary data shows that 65 per cent of consultants and senior specialists decided to take the jab.

According to Dr Balzan - who said he took the jab and recommended it to all his patients, particularly those with chronic respiratory disease - there was a higher vaccination rate among male doctors.

Doctors working at the Department of Medicine were the most likely to have taken the jab, with 60 per cent of them receiving the vaccination.

However, only 35 per cent of casualty doctors took the vaccine.