By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
A BERWICK mum whose son suffers from type one diabetes has successfully campaigned to have the televisions in Casey Hospital’s children’s ward provided free of charge.
Families of child patients were previously required to pay to use a television at the Monash Children’s Hospital at Casey.
Deb Bayley pushed to have the televisions provided for free after her son, Ryan, was admitted to the ward and stayed there overnight in July, following complications with his T1D which were triggered by a virus.
Ms Bayley said she only found out about the television cost after noticing many children had their TVs turned off and seemed a bit restless.
“It was my observation sitting in the room that children seemed to be a little bored and restless at times,” she said.
“And I saw one mother, as a way of entertaining a child, blowing up blue medical gloves, and that was something she’d done for her child to play with.
“Maybe she didn’t want the TV on, but it made me aware.”
After deciding she wanted to campaign for free televisions in the ward, Ms Bayley realised she would have to take the matter high up the chain.
She soon approached Casey Hospital’s Public Affairs Division and within three months has helped provide kids at the hospital with something else to smile about.
“I went home and had a think about it, and then I thought I’d make a few calls and emails and went about talking to the nurse in charge.
“Then I realised the best person to talk to was someone higher up,” she said.
“Now the TVs are free. I was very pleased with how quick I got a response, the hospital acted on it as quick as they could.”
Nurse Unit Manager Liz Brown from the children’s ward congratulated Ms Bayley for bringing the topic to the hospital’s attention.
“It’s been tremendous for the kids to have ready access to TV since Deb raised the topic.
“Kids can get quite bored sitting in their beds without much to keep them occupied,” she said.
“Not every child has a tablet or phone so to be able to just flick on cartoons for a while is really nice.
“All the staff here would really like to thank Deb for her work on this.”
