Cots, but too

By Lia Bichel
LESS than half the 20 cots in the Casey Special Care Nursery which was opened in 2010 are operating.
The Special Care Nursery at Casey Hospital was built in 2010 with 20 cots for sick infants at a cost of $5.2 million but is only running at between 25 per cent to 50 per cent capacity.
Kathryn McFarlane, spokesperson for Minister for Health David Davis, confirmed there were only six cots operating in the nursery, and on occasions, the number was flexed to up to 10 cots to allow babies transferred from other hospitals to be closer to where their parents live.
Despite only 50 per cent of the cots being in operation, Southern Health Spokesperson Suzana Talevski said the remaining cots had not been closed. Ms Talevski said there had not been a need to open all cots at this stage.
“This capacity has been built to meet future growth in births in the area over the next few years,” Ms Tavelski said.
“Southern Health is funded to provide for the current needs of our young patients.”
But Narre Warren North MP Luke Donnellan said the amount of cots operating at Casey Hospital’s Special Care Nursery forced families to go elsewhere and also raised alarms about the State Government’s underfunding of local health.
“It’s absolutely disgraceful that we have the facilities in place but no funding for the staff needed to run this important part of Casey Hospital.” Mr Donnellan said.
“The Baillieu Government has failed to fund the promised 100 new hospital beds in its first year, it’s failed on waiting lists for elective surgery with numbers almost doubling and it’s failed on nurse-patient ratios. Now it’s failing our most vulnerable, sick infants.”
Ms McFarlane said the State Government have delivered record funding for Southern Health, increasing its funding by $36.8 million in 2011/12.
”Southern Health will manage and allocate funding as it requires to meet future growth in births in the area over the coming years,” Ms McFarlane said.