No hospital beds for ill newborns.       :(

Date
    August 2, 2013


Overwhelmed Victorian hospitals are closing their doors to critically ill infants, putting pregnant women and their newborns at risk of being transferred interstate this week.    

Leaked documents show all of Victoria's neonatal intensive care units at the Royal Children's, Royal Women's, Monash Medical Centre and Mercy hospitals were either ''closed'' or ''restricted'' for new patients on Thursday.

The closures coincided with the transfer of a critically ill infant from Victoria to a South Australian hospital in the middle of this week. It is unclear, however, if the flight was forced by a lack of resources in Victoria.

The confidential report from the Victorian Perinatal Information Centre also revealed that all four hospitals were working beyond capacity, with more patients in their intensive care units than they are usually staffed for.      :(


Reasons cited for the closures in the report included ''no staffed beds'', ''nursing staff''', ''no physical space'' and, in the case of Mercy and Monash, ''equipment''.

Doctors who did not want to be named told Fairfax Media that overflowing units running at 100 to 105 per cent capacity were becoming too common in Victoria.

They said the stretched units were putting vulnerable babies at higher risk of medical errors and infections while also causing some pregnant women and their infants to be transferred between hospitals for stays that could last months far away from their homes.

The doctors said road and air transfers were particularly risky for critically ill infants.

In some cases, they said, a lack of resources had caused twins to be separated from each other and their mothers for significant periods of time.      :(

A spokeswoman for Victorian Health Minister David Davis said two babies had been transferred interstate this year, with one from Horsham, near the South Australian border, occurring this week.

The Victorian branch president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Stephen Parnis, called for ''a significant and urgent injection of resources'' and said the report confirmed the state had been caught unprepared for the baby boom of recent years.

''What it's saying is that there is little or no slack in the system if you are a very sick newborn,'' he said.

The closures come amid growing concern that the former Labor government built the new Royal Women's and Royal Children's hospitals without enough capacity to meet growing demand.

In 2011, the Victorian Auditor-General said the government had failed to plan for changing demand for maternity care, causing hundreds of women to give birth in Sunshine Hospital's emergency department.

While the Coalition promised to add 800 new beds to the system in its first term, Mr Davis has repeatedly refused to detail where all these beds are.      :(

A spokeswoman for the minister said the government had allocated $2.2 million in the recent budget for five additional cots, ''which makes a total increase of 11 cots since coming to government''.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/no-hospital-beds-for-ill-newborns-20130801-2r2dq.html#ixzz2akkiBSGn

Rudd and Gillard said that they were going to fix this...

but instead, they pulled a BILLION dollars out of the system and there's no guarantee that they will not pull another billion out next year.. thieving bastards..  >:(

Victorians also Subsidies states like QLD ex Labor governments debt as well... Gillard pulled our GST revenue return down to around 92c  in the dollar while pumping up states like QLDs revenue to a Dollar and .06c..  >:(

True Blue... wrote on Aug 2^nd, 2013 at 7:18am:

Rudd and Gillard said that they were going to fix this... but instead, they pulled a BILLION dollars out of the system and there's no guarantee that they will not pull another billion out next year.. thieving bastards..  >:( Victorians also Subsidies QLD ex Labor governments debt as well... Gillard pulled our GST revenue return down to around 92c  in the dollar while pumping up QLDs revenue to a Dollar and .06c..  >:(

Do you have a link to support this claim.....The GST funding formula is exactly the same as when Howard introduced it......Only the States can change the formula.....Hospitals are a State issue!!!

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Rudd and Gillard promised Australians that they would take care of the hospital crisis BEFORE the last election...

once again... what they do after the election is another thing...

then dickhead Labor supporter are surprised when yet again Labor don't deliver.. well durrrr

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phil...if the Federal Government pulls money out of at state they effectively reduce their GST return...

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/federal-gst-cash-allocation-biased-against-victoria-baillieu-government-says/story-e6frf7kx-1226027389884

True Blue... wrote on Aug 2^nd, 2013 at 7:26am:

Rudd and Gillard promised Australians that they would take care of the hospital crisis BEFORE the last election... once again... what they do after the election is another thing... then dickhead Labor supporter are surprised when yet again Labor don't deliver.. well durrrr ...................... phil...if the Federal Government pulls money out of at state they effectively reduce their GST return... http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/federal-gst-cash-allocation-biased-against-victoria-baillieu-government-says/story-e6frf7kx-1226027389884

Your link does not work.....Try this one.....

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/prime-minister-julia-gillard-reverses-labors-victorian-hospital-funding-cuts/story-e6frf7kx-1226582182228

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