Pressure is mounting on Royal Children’s Hospital CEO Dr. Peter Steer amid fresh calls to reinstate a cancelled panel event that would have addressed the Gaza war’s impact on children. Independent MP Monique Ryan is reportedly among those urging a reversal.
The event, titled “Children and War”, was scrapped shortly after a pro-Israel lobby group wrote to Steer calling for the event to be cancelled. The panel was scheduled for September 17 and intended to discuss the atrocities in Gaza - where at least 20,000 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces since October 2023 - as well as other conflict zones.
Staff, health professionals want event to proceed
The cancellation has provoked a fierce backlash among RCH staff, as well as industry health workers.
A survey organised by current and former RCH staff and shared exclusively with Deepcut gathered 1,580 responses, mostly from clinicians, within just 48 hours. The results reveal overwhelming support for reversing the cancellation:
85% want the panel event to proceed
77% said the cancellation was inappropriate
81% believe the decision contradicts the Melbourne hospital’s mission and values.
Of the total respondents to the survey, 447 identified as current and former RCH staff. Among this cohort, 76% wanted the CEO to reverse his decision.
MP Ryan calls for reversal
Separately, an email obtained by Deepcut indicates Ryan wrote to Steer “to convey her concerns, and asked him to reconsider the decision to cancel this Grand Round”.
“Dr Ryan was disappointed to see the Royal Children’s Hospital executive cancel a scheduled Grand Round on the subject of ‘Children and War’ recently, and hopes that the medical profession has more opportunities to safely address global concerns and the impact on their work,” the email read. Ryan is a former director of neurology at RCH.
Deepcut sought comment from Ryan’s office but received no response before publication.
Hospital’s reputation ‘damaged’
A former RCH staff member, who spoke to Deepcut on the condition of anonymity, called on Steer to “urgently review this decision and how it aligns with the hospital’s mission and values”.
But for some, the damage has already been done.
“I would say that Dr. Steer’s decision has brought the hospital into disrepute. It was an extremely irresponsible decision on a very important matter and his judgement in this is of grave concern,” Dr. Sue Wareham, President of the Medical Association for Prevention of War, told Deepcut.
Wareham, who was listed as a panel speaker, said she sought an urgent meeting with Steer “to try to propose a way forward on this”.
“I didn’t get any response whatsoever, and that was over a week ago,” she said.
Wareham’s sentiment was widely shared by survey respondents, many of whom left scathing comments as part of their response.
“The cancellation of this series beggars belief. In doing this the hospital has undermined its integrity and left the troubling impression that it does not see all children’s lives as equal,” one comment read.
“The decision of the CEO has harmed the reputation of our hospital and our commitment to providing care to children of all backgrounds,” another respondent wrote, adding that the hospital “has become complicit in the suffering of children for demanding silence on the issue”.
Questions over external pressure and transparency
In a message to staff on September 16 – a day before the scheduled event – Steer denied that “external pressure” played a role in his decision.
“It was the result of hospital leadership responding to internal staff feedback. Any other suggestion, is simply incorrect,” he wrote.
Wareham remains unconvinced. “I think it’s extremely unlikely that he was not influenced by any external pressure. Such pressure fits the pattern of what is happening across the country in the suppression of health voices in relation to Gaza,” she said. A similar event was cancelled at a Fremantle hospital in September 2024.
The timing of Steer’s decision also raises questions over the influence of external actors. The Guardian reports the pro-Israel lobby letter was dated September 9 – just two days before Steer informed panel speakers that the event was scrapped.
“If it was, in fact, just pressure on him from staff within the hospital, then what does that say about these staff who have said that they would feel uncomfortable or unsafe if a discussion of children and war went ahead?” Wareham said.
A survey respondent echoed a similar perspective. “Being a health care professional includes dealing with uncomfortable and sometimes traumatic conditions. If you really care about children this should never have been a topic of debate,” they wrote.
Wareham points to the anonymity of the complainants as “very troubling”.
“We don’t know who they were, we don’t know how many of them there were, we don’t know what they said,” she said.
The former RCH staff member flagged the potential damage in community trust of a vital public institution.
“Transparency, accountability and open dialogue are essential in maintaining the trust of clinicians, staff, patients and the wider community,” they said.
Numerous questions were sent to RCH, but no response was provided. The saga, nevertheless, has left staff and the wider healthcare community questioning whether Steer is up to the job.
“If they (RCH leadership) cannot act with the sensitivity, courage and compassion that children deserve, then questions about their fitness to lead, and the hospital’s reputation, will only grow louder,” the former RCH staff member said.
How many companies or business have been bullied by this unknown group or individual on the payroll of an organization.
I am opposed to fascists.