Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

A constituent contacted me recently regarding local parents whose babies and children are registered with the Old County Road primary care clinic. The clinic is no longer doing baby and child developmental checks. Several local mothers have reported being told by the clinic that these checks cannot be carried out on their babies or small children due to staff shortages. They are being sent postal questionnaires in the place of physical checks, including, in some cases, the crucial three-month and ten-month checks. These parents are very concerned that issues unknown to them may go undetected in their children, with potentially serious consequences. These developmental checks are essential. The HSE states on its website:

Make sure you bring your child to their developmental checks. It can help identify any health or developmental problems. Early diagnosis and treatment can help to improve issues your child may have.

I tabled a parliamentary question to the Minister for the attention of the HSE. It confirmed that this is the case. It confirmed that it will try to have the children on the waiting list seen in 2023. It stated that every effort is being made to recruit new public health nurses and a recruitment campaign will get underway in January 2023. There is a bit of a contradiction there. I do not know how it is going to catch up on the backlog when it does not even have the public health nurses required.

This is a basic healthcare provision that is required for newborn babies and children. Parents have been let down. Does the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, agree that this situation is intolerable? The Old County Road clinic is is another area of the health service that is in crisis, just like home care packages, the trolley crisis, consultants, mental health, access to dental services and services for disabled children and adults. Other areas, such as the Armagh Road clinic, have not been affected in this way.

I am raising this issue because it is very concerning and I want to find out exactly what the HSE is doing to resolve it. Maybe the Minister of State will provide the number of children on the waiting lists in this regard. I have not yet been given that information.

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