Dr Sohail Bhatti, interim director of public health at NHS East Lancashire, said during a meeting of the board that making the change could tackle the low uptake of the MMR jab in East Lancashire.
His suggestion followed a comment from another board member that in France it is policy for nurseries to only accept children if they have been immunised.
The primary care trust's figures for 2008/09 revealed a belowaverage number of children having the MMR by their second and fifth birthdays.
The reduction in the number of children vaccinated in England and Wales is blamed on Dr Andrew Wakefield's 1998 study, now discredited, which cited a link between MMR and autism.
Dr Bhatti approached Lancashire County Council to negotiate school admission policies that would include the jab as an entry requirement, but was told it would not be possible without a change in the law.
The question of making the MMR compulsory was also raised last year by Sir Sandy Macara, former chairman of the British Medical Association, following large outbreaks of measles in England and Wales. However, experts said it would be impossible to enforce (Analysis, 18 June 2009).
Claire Schofield, director of membership, policy and communications at National Day Nurseries Association, said, 'The issue of vaccination continues to arise, but NDNA would like to stress that we have not received large numbers of calls from nursery members who wish to implement a policy that all children must have the MMR vaccine before they start nursery.
'Our advice to any nursery considering this approach would be to carefully consider the implications, as this could potentially be considered discrimination against parents who choose not to vaccinate their child.
'A more effective approach may be to ensure that parents are fully informed about vaccination, for example by inviting a nurse to speak or displaying literature so that they can make a decision based on facts rather than any media reports.'
