Thursday, 10 February 2022

Maternal and child health services

Ms CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (22:23): (1738) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Health, and it is in relation to the suspension of maternal and child health nurse visits during this code brown that has been declared by the government. I am very concerned about this move by the government to do this, and I know that there are many new parents and new mothers that have been experiencing very difficult times not just at this current stage but over the last few months and obviously the last few years, which have seen significant services being disrupted as a result of COVID. But to deny basic services through maternal and child health nurses I think demonstrates just what a dire situation our health services are in. It is leaving these new mothers to fend for themselves, and critically it is not providing the support services that they need at this very time. At such a time I know, being a former midwife, how critical it is for new mothers to be able to have that support from a maternal and child health nurse to come in, give them the support, see if they are settling okay, see that the baby is feeding—just those basic reassurances to say that you are doing the right thing—and look at the baby’s developmental stages. So it is a very critical service, and it is extraordinary that it has been suspended.

Also, these maternal and child health nurses pick up things like family violence, and at a time when we have had so much family violence that has occurred over the last two years because of lockdown we do not need any more. These maternal and child health nurses have a great role in providing that support and advice to new mothers if they detect it.

At present there are 543 Victorians in hospital with COVID and 75 in ICU. Of those 75, 23 are on a ventilator. So the action I seek from the minister is a full breakdown of where Victoria’s maternal and child health nurses have been redeployed within the public hospital system since the government’s announcement on Friday, 28 January, and where these nurses were required during the current code brown until the end date, which has been put to Friday, 11 March. When I say the full breakdown, I am asking, on the redeployment of these nurses, from which services in which local government areas to which hospitals they have been deployed and for how many shifts they are actually working.