CHILD health services have been slashed and families are suffering, according to a retired midwife.

The whistleblower claims there is a massive shortage of health visitors, midwives and support since parts of the services were privatised.

The midwife, who worked in the Castle Point area, claimed many families are now missing out on the two year development checks because of staff shortages.

These are the times when toddlers are assessed for movement, speech, social skills, behaviour, hearing and vision.

They are crucial to identifying any issues early on.

The whistleblower claimed: “Things have gotten really bad since Virgin took over.

“Staff holidays and breaks are being cut but more importantly, the health visitors and community midwives are disappearing.

“Health visitors are very important in the ongoing care of mum and baby.

“Essex has a higher average of children going into care, health visitor intervention can often delay or prevent this happening by domiciliary visits.

“A lot of visits are done over the phone and not face to face which can be deceptive of the situation.

“So many midwives I worked with have now left because of the Virgin taking over the NHS contracts for Castle Point and I really feel Virgin Care is showing itself to be detrimental to the the health services provided to the general public.”

She claimed the county is 30 health visitors short, and they are now unable to make referrals for speech and language therapy it must now go through the GP.

However Virgin Care defended its record.

Richard Comerford, managing sirector of the Essex Child and Family Wellbeing Service, said: "Essex Child and Family Wellbeing Service is not commissioned to deliver midwifery services at all.

"It is our understanding that Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust is commissioned to deliver midwifery services in the Castle Point and the wider South East Essex area by Castle Point and Rochford CCG.

"Essex Child and Family Wellbeing Service is not commissioned to deliver speech and language therapy in the Castle Point and wider South East Essex area. This service is also provided by Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust. Members of staff from our Healthy Family Teams (e.g. Health Visitors and School Nurses) who identify children and young people who may require speech and language therapy will refer to the local service in accordance with local process stipulated by Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust.

"We do not carry out Health Visitor appointments on the telephone instead of in person. However, we do offer telephone support. Essex Child and Family Wellbeing Service provides a telephone duty service that enables families to call in and ask for instant advice or an appointment with a member of our staff from one of our Healthy Family Teams.

"The number of funded Health Visitor positions in South East Essex is relative to what existed before Essex Child and Family Wellbeing Service was formed. Essex, like many other parts of the country is experiencing staff shortages in Health Visitors. Essex Child and Family Wellbeing Service has deployed a range of measures to address this gap, including an aggressive recruitment campaign with generous employee incentives, the use of bank and agency staff and funding the training of ten health visitor students in south Essex who will qualify in September 2019."

A spokesman for Essex County Council, said: “The joint service is commissioned based on the ability to achieve positive outcomes for families, not based on the number of staff within the service.”

“Families remain at the heart of the service.”