Infant health visit services suspended

Baby and children health visit services suspended

13 March 2015

Many health visiting services in the Western Isles have been suspended due to a lack of staff.

The home visiting service will be prioritised, according to need said the isles’ health board.

Suspended services include:

Routine weekly postnatal visits by a health visitor

Antenatal core contacts – contacts to introduce the potential mum to the Health visiting services prior to delivery

27-month assessments of babies (in the Uists and Barra, 27 month checks will be carried out at clinics.)

Pre-school assessments (in the Uists and Barra, pre-school checks will be carried out at clinics)

Child planning meetings, in cases where there is no complex health need.

Western Isles NHS said health visitors are prioritising issues of child protection, ‘looked after’ and accommodated children and vulnerable families.

Newborn babies will get an initial visit. New mother who require it will receive additional visits up to eight weeks.

Until more nurses are recruited, health visiting appointments will generally take place through clinics and home visits, while school visits will be minimal.

NHS Western Isles Associate Chief Operating Officer, Colin Gilmour, said: “We are experiencing ongoing difficulties in recruiting to our health visiting vacancies and are making every effort to ensure that posts are filled as soon as possible.

“We do regret that some services have been temporarily reduced or suspended, and would apologise to anyone that this affects.

“In the meantime, we have prioritised services to ensure that all essential services are maintained.”