Dr. Emma Curtis:

Increasingly, many of the serious chronic conditions are identified before birth in the maternity hospital so there is an awareness before a child is born. This is all documented. Services maintain databases. Where I work we have a database. For example, I run a developmental and neurodisability clinic so I understand the need that is presenting to me, and we feed that back into the system. There is a disability register and a cancer register. There are registers that understand the need and the data and reports from the hospitals provide information. Data collection is incredibly important. The school piece is still very important. There is a very good child health surveillance programme which is delivered in the community. Within schools there is an emphasis on ensuring that dental, hearing and vision issues are picked up in children because they would impact on their education if they were missed. Those services exist and they are very important. They are outside hospital and are managed through the HSE.