Child health claims may prompt audit

By Sarah Schwager
CASEY Council is considering an independent audit of its maternal and child health services after claims the health of young children was being put at risk.
Narre Warren North MP Luke Donellan recently claimed many mothers and their babies were being turned away from City of Casey’s maternal and child health centres with nothing more than a questionnaire.
At Tuesday’s council meeting, Casey director of community services Jennie Lee said the council had decided to set up the audit to deal with concerns from the community and councillors.
However, deputy mayor Kevin Bradford said more research was needed on Casey’s maternal and child health services before an audit could be conducted.
He moved that the council decide at its next meeting on 20 February.
“We want to be able to specify to the auditor what area of maternal and child health services we want looked at,” Cr Bradford said.
Concern has been raised at the implementation of the Toddler Developmental Screening Service (TDSS), a questionnaire about the child’s health and development that identifies those who need to be referred to a health care provider as a priority.
Cr Bradford said there was concern that the questionnaire was the only method used for children over 12 months.
But Ms Lee said the questionnaire was simply used as a means of opening up conversation between the health care provider and the parent.
“The TDSS program is seen as a very effective tool to evaluate child development and is used alongside the maternal and child health program,” she said.
She said the program had been introduced because of a shortage of nurses and as an alternative to scrapping maternal and child health services for children over 12 months altogether.
She said when the city had more nurses, it would be able to include 18-month and two-year-old appointments along with those from 0 to 12 months.
A meeting has been organised for tomorrow (Friday) with Department of Human Services staff and maternal and child health nurses to report back on the implementation of a working group.