
They made an oath to “do no harm,” and now they’re following through.
At least 300 doctors and other health professionals at a children’s hospital in Brisbane have called for he immediate release of children from immigration detention.
Hundreds of the hospital staffers gathered around lunchtime on Tuesday for a protest photo outside the front of the hospital, holding banners declaring: “Detention harms children,” ABC News reports.
“Staff at our hospital have seen children with post-traumatic stress disorder, attempted suicide, developmental delays, recurrent nightmares, anxiety-related bed wetting, failure to thrive – a whole range of problems,” the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital’s clinical ethics fellow, Dr Melanie Jansen, told ABC radio on Tuesday.
“Detention centres are not places where children’s well-being are being promoted,” Dr Jansen told the ABC.
Director of Paediatrics at LCCHDr David Levitt said: “Queensland health professionals wish to stand with our colleagues in Melbourne and call for an end to children in detention. We have extensively reviewed the scientific evidence and it couldn’t be more clear – detention harms children.”
Dr Jansen said medical professionals have lobbied for years, but the government had failed to listen.
The Royal Australian College of Physicians has previously demanded an audit of all allegations of sexual and physical abuse on Nauru, with its president telling Guardian Australia: “Detention centres are no place for children… This situation is unacceptable”.
Australian Medical Association president Brian Owler agreed.
“This is a matter of human rights, it’s a matter of stopping systematic abuse of children that is sanctioned by the Australian government,” he said.