Tim O'Malley (Limerick East, Progressive Democrats)

I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney. I thank the Senator for raising the matter as it provides me with an opportunity to outline to the House the importance attached by the Department and the Health Service Executive to child health screening.

The matter raised by the Senator relates to the management and delivery of health and personal social services, which are the responsibility of the HSE under the Health Act 2004. I am not aware of the reports referred to by the Senator. However, I set out below the principles guiding the provision of school screening services.

Best Health for Children introduced national recommendations on the child health screening and surveillance programme in 1999, and these were revised in 2005. In summary, current recommendations regarding child health screening that should be offered to children attending primary school are as follows: health assessment at school entry with follow-up selective medical examination where necessary; hearing screening at school entry; and vision screening at school entry and exit.

The school screening service is public health nursing led and where anomalies are discovered, children are referred to the area medical officer service, community ophthalmology or a service relevant to the issue highlighted. Should any urgent medical issues arise, an appropriate referral is advised immediately. There is coverage of all public primary schools and uptake rates are very satisfactory. In areas where the service is unable to visit all schools during the school year, the outstanding schools are visited as early as possible the following school year. Particular emphasis is placed on children who join a school who have not had a previous school health examination and in these cases, all elements of the screening programme are provided to those children.

A health assessment questionnaire for completion by parents has been also introduced in some areas and, based on the review of these questionnaires by the school public health nurse, children are referred to school medical clinics at their local health centre if necessary. In the case of a child being absent on the day of screening, parents are offered the facility of bringing their child to the local health centre for screening at a nurse-led child health clinic. I have been informed by the HSE that the statistical information on the coverage achieved by the programme since 2000 is not available.