BRIMBANK mothers have welcomed the return of maternal and child health services to the council.
ISIS Primary Care has provided services for 15 years, but a growing number of births in Brimbank means the number of enrolments is far outnumbering staff.
The ISIS contract for paediatric health services, family support, refugee health, child dental care and playgroup support ends on December 12 and the council has announced it will not be renewed.
ISIS director of community support Michael Girolami said enrolments had soared from 3118 in 2006 to 3923 this year.
There are only 30 staff employed at the service and ISIS had requested additional funding and staff to keep up with the demand.
‘‘Enrolment trends are showing a further rise in 2013 and this is supported by feedback from Sunshine Hospital, our major feeder, which is anticipating a high number of births over the coming months,’’ Mr Girolami said.
Taylors Lakes mother Belinda Hakkennes used the service for her three children, aged between 3 and 7.
‘‘It has always been a good service, but there is too much demand for it and I believe more resources needed to be put into it,’’ she said.
‘‘I hope that with the council taking over they will put more money into maternal and child-care services.’’
Sunshine mother Billie Olela said better access to maternal health services was needed.
‘‘I think it will work better in the long run because it will provide one source of contact for maternal health for new mothers,’’ she said.
‘‘I think it will be a more straightforward way of doing things . . . at the moment, there’s a difficulty for mothers to know what’s out there in terms of maternal nurses.’’
Brimbank’s general manager of community well-being, Neil Whiteside, said it was the only council in Melbourne that did not provide maternal child and health services directly.
Mr Whiteside said council’s priority was to ensure all families could access appropriate support.
‘‘We will work with ISIS to deliver a smooth transition to this new service model.’’
