Funding for the B4 School Programme should cover all eligible children, but more than 1500 Otago and Southland children will miss out on the health check, a health official says.
Kaye Crowther, a member of the Otago and Southland District Health Boards' community and public health advisory committee, told its recent monthly meeting the programme was supposed to cover all children.
The voluntary checks are supposed to identify health, behavioural, social and developmental issues in 4-year-olds which might affect their ability to learn.
Mrs Crowther said if Otago and Southland met their targets under the programme, more than 600 Southland children and 900 Otago children would still not receive checks.
It would not even cover all those in the highly deprived category.
When the programme was launched, it was supposed to cover all children - "that was the point of it".
The coverage was not acceptable, Mrs Crowther said.
Committee member Louise Rosson said the committee had been very positive about the programme when it was originally outlined and it was "really disappointing" it was not delivering to the extent which had been hoped.
The committee agreed to recommend to the boards they inform the Ministry of Health they were unhappy with the level of funding and that it should cover all eligible children.
Mrs Crowther, who had aired similar concerns earlier this year, was commenting on a report from planning and funding portfolio manager Carol Gray outlining the targets and how the checks were to be delivered.
Early childhood centres were a valuable access point for reaching the children as there was a high enrolment rate - 95% in Otago.
The emphasis from the Ministry of Health was on achieving the high deprivation target, Ms Gray said.
Balclutha GP Branko Sijnja said doctors were still doing screening checks, but Mrs Crowther said these were not the same as the standardised check the B4 school programme involved.
Health Minister Tony Ryall has been concerned about the national delivery of the programme, describing it as patchy and its implementation as "almost shambolic" and has said he will make a decision on its future after evaluating its performance to the end of this year.
