Michelle Daw, Yorke Peninsula Country Times

A southern Yorke Peninsula mothers’ group has had to buy its own scales to weigh newborn babies because of what members say is a lack of local services provided by Child and Family Health Services.

Katie Hughes, facilitator for Yorke – town’s New Mama Meet Up group, said the two CaFHS nurses who had been based in Maitland and Minlaton had retired or resigned in the past 18 months and had not been replaced.

The nearest CaFHS nurses are now at Kadina, which is a round trip of at least two hours for either the nurses or the local families.

“We bought the scales and a measuring kit last year out of frustration, because babies here were not being weighed and measured,” Mrs Hughes said.

“The wait time for a face-to-face appointment was three months.

“We have had babies up to 7 months old coming to the group who had only been seen by a CaFHS nurse once as a newborn.

There are no official records of their growth, no tracking or intervention if needed.

“We get up to 18 mothers at our meetings each week.”

Mrs Hughes said regular, face-to-face contact with a CaFHS nurse was vitally important for the health and development of babies and toddlers, and for the mental and physical health of new mothers.

She said a number of nurses who live in the area, including those already qualified to work for CaFHS, had registered their interest in the positions, but had not received any response.

A spokesperson for the Women’s and Children’s Health Network said CaFHS Country North region had recruited a new registered nurse who started this week.

“Staff in the Yorke Peninsula area will be based at Kadina, at the CaFHS Consolidated Service Site, and services for the region will remain the same, including for home visiting services,” the spokesperson said.

“Currently, we have clinics rostered in Minlaton and Maitland for the remainder of July and into August and September, and will continue to schedule these in line with service delivery requirements.

“All families who consent to CaFHS visiting will continue to have a home visit after the birth for the 1 to 4 week health check.”

The spokesperson said families are encouraged to access a weekly virtual clinic for initial assessments then appointments can be arranged.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show there were 102 births for a birth rate of 2.30 in the Yorke Peninsula Council area in 2021.

This had increased significantly from the 78 births recorded in 2011.

In that time, YPC’s population grew from 11,198 people to 11,828.

New Mama Meet Up group coordinator Katie Hughes said the number of births and population growth in the YPC area proved it needed to retain 1.4 FTE locally based CaFHS nurses and the group and broader community were determined to push for this.

“So many (health) services are being centralised to Kadina but this is one we are not willing to lose,” she said.

The New Mama Meet Up group held a community meeting about the lack of CaFHS services on SYP at the Southern Yorke Peninsula Community Hub in Yorketown last Thursday, July 13.

Member for Narungga Fraser Ellis attended the meeting and said he had written to the Women’s and Children’s Health Network, requesting a meeting to discuss the future of the service.

“CaFHS should not be a satellite service,” he said.

“Centralising it to the Copper Coast Council area is not an option — that means it takes three hours driving time out of a nurse’s day to get to the YPC area when they could be providing care.”

YPC mayor Darren Braund said council would provide whatever support it could for the campaign to restore local CAFHS services.

He said council was keen to attract and support young families in the area.

“We have just got a new childcare centre in Minlaton and CaFHS is a vital part of our support structure,” he said.

“The services we have now are nothing compared to what we had previously.”

This article appeared in the Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 18 July 2023.