A protest outside the office of Victorian MP Bernie Finn, the Liberal member for Western Metropolitan Region, has sparked a war of words over healthcare provision in Melbourne’s western suburbs.
Jenny Mikakos, Victoria’s Shadow Minister for Children and Young Adults, joined a group of fellow Labor MPs, parents and teachers at the rally last week to voice their opposition to Sunshine Hospital’s reported refusal to assess pre-school children with potential disabilities.
Earlier this year, Western Health wrote to local kindergartens advising that the hospital would no longer accept multi-disciplinary assessment referrals.
Ms Mikakos said the hospital’s inability to offer the service should be laid squarely at the door of the Napthine government, who “have failed to provide sufficient funding to keep up with the growing demand for the Children’s Allied Health Service (CAHS)”.
Labor says that the situation is resulting in children at risk being unable to access early intervention services.
“Mr Finn has ignored the cruel nature of these cuts,” Ms Mikakos told media in a statement.
“It’s the children and their families who can least afford it that will be the ones paying the price now that the service is not available at Sunshine Hospital.”
Since the CAHS stopped taking referrals, Ms Mikakos said parents had been forced to pay privately for assessments costing $1500 or travel out of the area.
“As a result some kids – many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds – will simply miss out and these children will struggle to meet their potential,” said the shadow minister.
Ms Mikakos said Labor had gained hundreds of signatures on a petition demanding the Napthine Government reinstates the CAHS at Sunshine Hospital.
Her comments were echoed by Christos Havelas who runs the support group Autism Angels, which campaigns for better services for autistic children in the area.
“Out in the west we’re just losing services and people who are doing it hard have to travel and it just takes forever,” Mr Havelas told Neos Kosmos.
“It’s about having adequate services in the whole of Victoria. In the western suburbs there’s nothing out here for children with special needs.”
Meanwhile, Bernie Finn MP has refuted Labor’s allegations.
Mr Finn told Neos Kosmos: “It is disappointing, but not surprising, that the Opposition is continuing to cause stress to families in the western suburbs in a bid to grab headlines.
“Western Health,” said Mr Finn, “has assured the Department that all children currently on the waiting list due to start school in 2014, will receive assessments.
“Let’s make it very clear that there has been no reduction to the funding allocated to Western Health by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development each year.”
Mr Finn added that the Department currently provides more than $1 million to Western Health annually to provide specialist health services for children who are having difficulties in more than one area of development before they start school.