Lobby group renews push for kids' beds

Cancer research fundraiser Rick Parish is refusing to accept the State Government's decision not to add an extra storey to Perth Children's Hospital - and he has more than 6500 people on his side.

Mr Parish and other parents have harnessed the power of social media to lobby the Government over its plans to add another 24 beds instead of the 100 beds they want at the Nedlands hospital.

The Government recently agreed to add a $38 million, 24-bed ward to the $1.2 billion hospital, which is due to be finished by mid-2015, but ruled out adding an extra storey costing up to $100 million.

But Mr Parish, who lost his four-year-old son Elliot to cancer in 2011, said he did not accept the Government's argument that another 24 beds would be enough and accused it of short-changing families.

He said that feeling was shared by thousands who had signed up to a support group through Facebook and an online petition.

"If the Government thinks the strength of feeling is diminishing they are wrong, because if anything it's getting stronger, and it's a cross- section of the whole community including industry leaders and some extraordinarily wealthy people," Mr Parish said.

"We expect to get to 10,000 supporters soon just on our Facebook page."

Mr Parish said the Government claimed extra paediatric beds at other hospitals would help. "But if your child is sick, you head straight to PMH, not Peel or Joondalup," he said.

The Australian Medical Association also wants the Government to reconsider what the group says is a lack of vision to future-proof the hospital beyond 2021.

WA vice-president Michael Gannon said the hospital needed to cope with demand for at least 50 years, not five years. "Now is the time to get good value for money, when the cranes are in the air and the concrete is pouring, not later when it will cost more and probably never happen," he said.

But Health Minister Kim Hames said the promised extra beds would be more than enough to meet demand and the Government would not back down.

"I understand parents are passionate about this, but we have looked at this closely, and even now on many days we have empty beds at PMH because the occupancy varies enormously," he said. "The new hospital will grow by 48 beds and that will be enough to cope with peak times."