A STAGGERING 2571 Tasmanian children missed out on the traditional prep year health check last year that has been the early warning sign for vision and hearing problems as they start school.
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The large number of children to miss out came even after children's services took the unprecedented step of offering the checks in individual appointments during the last Christmas school holidays to catch those who had fallen through the cracks during 2012.
Children's Minister Michelle O'Byrne said the children missed out last year because there had been child health and parenting nurse recruitment difficulties so that capacity to do the checks was reduced.
The prep year check was routinely conducted by school nurses until they were phased out of the Tasmanian system more than 12 months ago.
Ms O'Byrne said last night that she was satisfied that those who had missed out would be given the same screening this year as grade 1 pupils.
The children are those caught in the middle of a major change in the delivery of public health checks for those under five.
Ms O'Byrne announced some time ago that the prep screening would be superseded by the new Health Kids Check between the ages of three and four, before children started school.
She believes that this scheme will reach more vulnerable children because the health check will be a mandatory part of qualifying for the government family tax payment.
But opposition children's spokeswoman Jacquie Petrusma, who obtained the statistics in answer to a question taken on notice during last month's budget estimates hearing, said that the government had failed the 2571 children from 2012.
``If those who missed out have undetected vision and hearing problems, they have missed out on a year of learning,'' Ms Petrusma said.
Ms Petrusma said that removing the prep check by child health nurses had been a retrograde step.
Tasmanian State School Parents and Friends Association president Jenny Eddington said that the association wanted school nurses reinstated and prep year checks brought back.
``They are an efficient way to do it, you capture the kids and you get the added feedback from the teacher who follows up with parents,'' Ms Eddington said.
The prep year checks saved the workload of general practitioners and were a more holistic look at a child's health at the start of school, she said.
``They picked up a whole range of issues, not just vision and hearing,'' she said.
Ms O'Byrne said she was satisfied the new system that would be rolled in over the next couple of years would reach most children because it was tied to family tax payments.
The new preschool checks are done at child health centres and most child and family centres.