Four newborn babies born in South Australia tragically died in the last month because they could not be airlifted to receive life saving treatment in Melbourne, due to South Australia's border restrictions with Victoria.
The South Australian Parliament Committee heard that the deaths would have been avoidable had Adelaide's Women's and Children's Hospital had the right cardiac treatment available.
Since it doesn't, the Committee heard that there has been a standing arrangement with Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital to fly newborns and their families to Melbourne for emergency specialist heart surgery.
Doctors told the Committee yesterday that this was now an untenable option because the babies could not be brought be back again into South Australia due to border restrictions.
Salaried Medical Officers Association chief industrial office Bernadette Mulholland told The Australian doctors had advised her “that in these four cases, the issue was Victoria not being able to retrieve the babies’’.
Sydney's Westmead Hospital is also an option but is done a case by case basis and dependent on Specialists and staff being available at the time.