Health & Fitness
Making sure everyone has access to key health services from the day they are born is critical to good health. However, sometimes the challenge is making sure all families are aware of the services their baby is entitled to.
Now, a new initiative to support enrolment with the five key newborn health services means that no newborn should miss out on the best start in life.
The initiative called Oranga Pēpi – Baby’s Care has been developed by Southern DHB and WellSouth and provides a single user-friendly source of information about key newborn services in the Southern District. It also means it is easier to identify those who are missing out, at an earlier stage.
Oranga Pēpi – Baby’s Care includes resources such as posters, brochures, postcards and fridge magnets, each of which describe a baby’s entitlement to five free key newborn health services:
- Newborn Hearing Screening
- National Immunisation Register
- Southern DHB Community Oral Health Care
- General Practice
- Well Child Tamariki Ora Services
“Midwives already discuss entitlement to these key newborn services with expectant mothers, but having Oranga Pēpi – Baby’s Care resources available to them, and also to other providers, will help to support this process,” says Southern DHB Director of Midwifery, Jenny Humphries.
“We’re very excited about Oranga Pēpi – Baby’s Care – it will assist families to access these services early on so that newborns receive the best care possible, and also help address barriers to accessing health services. Above all, the initiative will help us to identify children who would otherwise miss out on services or enter services late as these are associated with poor health outcomes.”
Through the Oranga Pēpi – Baby’s Care initiative, the DHB’s existing electronic enrolment system will also be used to assist access across all five services, and Southern DHB staff will follow up with family/whānau if a newborn is missing out on services.
The name Oranga Pēpi – Baby’s Care was kindly gifted by Southern DHB Kaumātua for this initiative.
Oranga Pepi – Baby’s Care will be launched on Monday 27 November 2017 at 10.30 am in the Whānau Room on the ground floor of Dunedin Hospital.