A baby has been turned away from a chemotherapy session for a truly tragic reason.

The parents of a baby with a potentially fatal illness say their son’s chemotherapy treatment was delayed at Perth’s Princess Margaret Hospital due to a lack of beds.

Flynn’s father, Sean Gray, said despite having booked a chemotherapy treatment session more than four weeks in advance, his son was turned away from the children’s hospital last Tuesday because there were no beds.

“We were absolutely gutted,” he said.

“We had days of waiting around until 3:00pm and then somebody would ring saying there wasn’t any beds.

“It’s an awful situation to be in, especially with such a sick little boy.

“He’s now gone almost a week past what is ideal to have his chemotherapy treatment.”

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A Princess Margaret Hospital spokeswoman said she could not comment on the specifics of Flynn’s case.

Flynn was allocated a bed on Sunday afternoon, but Mr Gray fears it will be an ongoing struggle to admit his son to the hospital every month for his required chemotherapy.

Toddler allocated unsanitary room during first stay: father

He said during Flynn’s first session in January, there was no other option but to share what he described as an unsanitary room with other children.

“The conditions in the room that we were in were so bad that one of the cleaners refused to clean the toilet because the people we were sharing with were so unbelievably disgusting,” he said.

“There was food all over the floor and faeces on the walls in the toilet and around the toilet.

“It wasn’t until the cleaner said something that we were moved rooms, so our complaints really fell on deaf ears until one of the staff refused to actually do anything with the room.

“Even then we were still moved to another shared ward.

“(Flynn)’s at a very, very high risk of infection, his immune system is becoming very, very suppressed and he does need to be in isolation and away from the risk of infection both from other children in the hospital and from people like myself, or mum or strangers even who may have a cold or anything like that.”

Mr Gray said he feared Princess Margaret Hospital was not getting the support it needed from the State Government, and the duty of care was being sacrificed due to the construction of Perth’s new hospital for children, expected to open in November.

“If there are no beds available for a seriously ill child, I don’t really want to think about the other situations that are not being dealt with as a result of that,” he said.

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“PMH needs to be supported in what it needs to do and not be forgotten about just because there’s a new hospital being built.

“There are lifts there that haven’t worked in months.

“You expect the best care for your child.

“We feel that we may not quite be getting the best care we could be.”

Mr Gray said hospital staff told his family the facility was running above capacity.

Rooms allocated according to need: hospital

But the hospital spokeswoman said the construction of Perth Children’s Hospital has had no impact on the clinical care delivered at PMH.

She said patient services would continue as normal while the new hospital was being built.

“Demand at PMH fluctuates and booked admissions are sometimes affected by unusually high levels of demand for tertiary paediatric services from the community,” she said in a statement.

She said single rooms at the hospital were allocated according to clinical need.

The spokeswoman said hygiene and cleanliness levels were “of a very high standard” and those with concerns should communicate with staff.

Health Minister Kim Hames said the budget for PMH was not affected by the construction of the Perth Children’s Hospital.

Mr Gray said the disease had damaged Flynn’s kidney and he may need a bone marrow transplant in the future.

“Essentially what’s happening to him is his body is attacking his vascular system and as a result, there’s an intense amount of malformations in his arteries and swelling in his limbs,” he said.

“He suffers pain from blood clotting and he has very, very high blood pressure that he is medicated for.

“He’s nearly lost a kidney and he suffers a huge amount of pain every day, all day.”

This article was originally published by the ABC. It has been republished here with full permission.