NHS: Mum wait two-and-a-half years for baby's health visitor

A mum said her daughter had to wait two-and-a-half years to see a health visitor after she was born.

Manon Rhys-Jones, 36, from Ystrad Meurig in Ceredigion, said there were "cracks in the system" when she had her other children before the pandemic.

She said when she talked about it online, mums from other parts of Wales were "totally shocked".

Hywel Dda health board said staff shortages had put a strain on health visits, but things were improving.

Ms Rhys-Jones said the reaction online to her post indicated that "other mothers from Ceredigion... were like 'oh yes, tell me about it, we haven't seen anyone either'".

She added: "But other mothers from other counties were totally shocked we hadn't seen anyone because they'd had all their regular appointments."

The Welsh government's Healthy Child Wales programme sets out targets for children to receive eight or nine health visits by the time children start school.

Ceri Evans, 33 from Penrhyn-coch, near Aberystwyth, had a similar experience after giving birth to Anna in April 2022.

"As a new parent you worry about everything," she said.

"I just didn't see any health visitors or anyone really.

"I did contact them when she was about six months, she was due her six-month check, they said they'd come back to me but I didn't see anyone and I kept hassling them.

"After finally getting one of the health visitors out to see her, she did admit that Anna had fallen through the net."

Sian Jones, a health visitor in Ceredigion, said the visits played an important role in measuring a child's development, supporting parents and assessing any potential risks in the home.

She added: "It has been challenging, Covid obviously made changes to how we could visit and we've also had difficulties recruiting into posts that have become vacant."

The Ceredigion team has been helped by those in neighbouring Carmarthenshire, she said.

Senior nurse at Hywel Dda health board, Liz Wilson, said "First of all I'm sorry if they haven't had the service that they [parents] were expecting.

"We've come from a place which was quite worrying and it is an improving picture."

She said recruitment was a "national issue" but was "worse in the more rural areas".

Barnardo's Cymru said health visits were "crucial" for child development, safeguarding and wellbeing and staff shortages were being felt "all over Wales".

The charity's Laura Bibey said: "What we know is that early childhood experiences and infancy is such a crucial period of a child's development and it can have a lifelong impact on children."

The Welsh government said: "We expect health boards to offer the full range of Healthy Child Wales programme contacts and they should risk assess all caseloads to identify vulnerable and at-risk families.

"We also expect health boards to regularly review operations, including workforce requirements for the health visiting service."