Mr. Francis Chance:

I thank the Senator for the question. It is great to have personal experience coming into this discussion. In recent days, I have heard of two different situations. One case involved a baby born two weeks ago who was discharged from the maternity hospital with a particular health condition but the mother was not given good advice in regard to that condition or breastfeeding. The mother and baby were supposed to get a home visit from a public health nurse within 72 hours of their arrival at home but that did not happen. Instead, the mother received a telephone call asking her to attend the health centre. She had never been there before and had not yet left the house with the baby. She arrived late to the health centre because she could not access parking and she had a very rushed meeting with a public health nurse who suggested that because the baby had lost a little weight, the mother should cease breastfeeding and move to formula feeds immediately. That was not appropriate advice.

In terms of the public health nurse piece, the most immediate priority is that every public health nurse be returned to full public health nursing duties away from any engagement in the Covid supports. Otherwise in six months, 16 months or six years, babies who are being missed now in terms of developmental checks will be appearing in our services with deep-set difficult needs that will cost a lot to address. It is important that we get that screening back in place.

The second piece is a look-back in terms of the pandemic with regard to the children who since March of last year have not been fully screened in relation to their needs. They need to be screened properly now. Last week, a parent told me that her child had just started school and she got a telephone call from the public health nurse asking her if everything was fine and if it was okay to discharge the child. The public health nurse could not get off the phone quick enough. Luckily, everything was fine. If that had not been the case and the family had needed support, that telephone conversation was not one that would have encouraged them to voice their concerns or seek help. Those things need to happen. We need to do that look-back around the children born during the pandemic to identify if they have been fully screened. Otherwise, we are setting ticking time bombs for our healthcare adult services into the future.

The third piece is that we need to immediately start to progress in regard to child and family public health nursing. Again, we are not working in a vacuum. This has been happening extremely successfully for many years now in Longford and Westmeath. A public director of public health nursing in that area many years ago had the foresight and vision to try a different structure within her own area. Nobody stopped her and it has worked. She has good evaluation in terms of care of older people and the care of children, as well as the satisfaction of the staff in that it is working. We need to apply that nationally. It is written in policy. We need to do it. The cost of doing it is clearly laid out in Sláintecare. The cost is €14 million for a phased developed over a five-year timeframe. That should have started in year one of Sláintecare. We are now in year four of Sláintecare, which is a bit wobbly at the moment. We need to bring it back on track and to catch up.