Poo might not grab headlines, but for some children it’s a daily medical struggle requiring support, surgery, and lifelong care.
As a grandmother and a Member of Parliament, I’ve seen firsthand the devastating impact that disbanding the Colorectal and Pelvic Reconstruction Service (CPRS) at the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) has had on families across Victoria and Australia.
My grandson, Edward, was diagnosed with Hirschsprung disease at just eight days old. He is one of many brave little Australians who depended on the CPRS for specialised care, both pre- and post-surgery. This is expert wraparound support that no other hospital or service in the country provides.
For five years, the CPRS has provided lifesaving care and improved quality of life for children with complex colorectal conditions like Hirschsprung disease, anorectal malformations, and chronic constipation. These children and their families travel from all over Australia, even overseas, to be treated by this service. Ongoing outpatient care is provided via telehealth, ensuring families, wherever they are, continue to be supported when their child’s bowel does not function according to plan.
It has been a beacon of light for families who are navigating the most difficult of circumstances, offering not only expert medical treatment but nursing and psychological support for both children and their families over the phone and via email, thereby avoiding emergency departments and doctors’ waiting rooms, neither of which can manage these highly complex conditions.
When the service’s federal funding ended last June, the quiet dismantling began. Patients and families were left in crisis – a medical abyss. The RCH and the Victorian Health Minister have tried to suggest nothing has changed.
But this is not true. Ask any parent who has tried to use the hospital switchboard for urgent help with a child vomiting up faeces for days or a mother who has received an auto-generated text message from the hospital with a set date of her child’s surgery without the chance to discuss all options.
That’s why I was grateful to the Federal Coalition for their election commitment to provide a $1.2 million lifeline to keep the CPRS running and to permanently fund the service under a new National Health Reform Agreement. The Coalition promise gave families much-needed hope, knowing that their children will continue to receive the best possible nursing and allied health care.
That promise validated what families already know – these conditions, often hidden from society, are serious and deserve attention. These children worry every day about when and where they might soil themselves. They are stigmatised, bullied, and are often home-schooled in the end.
But the CPRS transformed their lives and enabled them to go to school and navigate the world at large, as normally as possible. The CPRS enables them to lead a dignified life.
On behalf of the children who can’t poo normally and the parents who care for them, I am calling on the Albanese government to match that commitment.
This is not about politics – it’s about children who need urgent care.
This is a true test of Labor’s values.
If the government can fund $15 million for Adelaide Zoo’s panda enclosure and their endless supply of bamboo, then surely it can find $1.2 million to protect our most vulnerable babies and children.
These families are not asking for special treatment – they are simply asking for the basic, lifesaving care their children need to survive and thrive. With CPRS support, they avoid repeated visits to emergency departments, GP clinics, and even air ambulance transfers, making the service cost-neutral to the healthcare budget.
The CPRS is recognised globally for its excellence in paediatric colorectal care and its world-leading research. Dismantling it would not only fail our families – it would mark a step backwards for paediatric healthcare around the world.
The Albanese Labor government must step up and ensure the CPRS is fully funded.
This is about the children who rely on it, the families who cannot imagine life without it, and the continued leadership of the Royal Children’s Hospital in providing world-class surgical, nursing, and allied healthcare to our most vulnerable – our sick children.
