By Broede Carmody and Alexander Darling
The Royal Children’s Hospital has scrapped its plan to cut a dozen jobs at its Children’s Cancer Centre.
Three days after The Age revealed the hospital’s plan to cut 13 positions, the hospital confirmed that it was working with its philanthropic arm, the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation, to continue funding the roles, which include specialist mental health workers, allied health professionals and art therapists.
Marlyn Torres and son Ali, 9, are relieved the Royal Children’s Hospital will continue to fund the arts therapy program, which Ali benefits from.Credit: Simon Schluter
“The RCH is working with the RCH Foundation to continue funding 13 roles within the CCC [Children’s Cancer Centre] and will work together to ensure the programs will sustainably continue in the long-term,” the hospital said in a statement on Monday.
“The RCH has benefited immeasurably from philanthropy and community support throughout our 155-year history.”
This masthead revealed on Friday that 10 full-time equivalent roles would be axed at the Children’s Cancer Centre, with a leaked document blaming changes to philanthropic allocations from the RCH Foundation for the cut to jobs “currently being supported by donor funds”.
However, the Children’s Cancer Foundation and My Room Children’s Cancer Charity – two organisations that funnel money to the RCH Foundation – confirmed over the weekend that a reduction in their funds was not behind the proposed job cuts.
Hospital staff were told in a meeting on Monday the plan to cut jobs had been scrapped.Credit: Chris Hopkins
A Children’s Cancer Centre source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said staff were pulled into a meeting on Monday morning with just three minutes’ notice where they learnt of the plan to reverse the job cuts – despite some staff members already lining up other employment.
“What a disgrace,” the employee told The Age on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
“It’s clear the priority was the reputation of the hospital.”
The Good Friday Appeal – which last year raised a record $23.37 million – also confirmed over the weekend that it intended to help fund the hospital’s art therapy program.
Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier welcomed Monday’s announcement.
“These positions have been at risk for weeks,” Crozier said. “It should never have gotten to this point.”
Marlyn Torres, whose son, Ali, is a patient at the Children’s Cancer Centre, said she was relieved the programs would continue.
Ali was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia type B when he was five years old. Now nine, Ali relapsed last year, after 10 months being cancer-free.
Torres said art and music therapists had been every bit as crucial to her son’s mental health as doctors and nurses had been to his physical health.
“When he [relapsed], he said to me he didn’t want to live because it was just too much,” she said.
“The protocol for a relapse is actually quite aggressive, and this is where art therapy and music therapy actually helped us.
“My son has been through countless hours with music and art therapists to try and work through his trauma of needles, and we are now at a point where he comes in and he gives his finger [for needles] and he’s OK.”
Torres said she found out about the proposed cuts to the programs through the media on Friday. She hoped it would be a different story next time.
My Room Children’s Cancer Charitychair Maurizio Marcocci.
“I understand that it’s a public institution and there will changes and movements, [but] I think that fact that parents were not informed did affect that trust,” she said.
My Room Children’s Cancer Charity chair Maurizio Marcocci said he was thrilled by Monday’s announcement.
Marcocci helped start the charity more than 30 years ago after he was a patient at the Children’s Cancer Centre as a child.
“These roles make a big difference to the clinical, long-term journey of kids going through cancer – not just from a physical perspective, but a mental health perspective,” he said.
“Children’s cancer is the No.1 killer of kids after accidents. The people who support us want to know that the Children’s Cancer Centre is well resourced thanks to charities like My Room Children’s Cancer Charity and the Children’s Cancer Foundation. It’s a good result for all parties.”
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