NSW: Five babies known to DOCS die in four months - union

AAP General News (Australia)
08-30-2001
NSW: Five babies known to DOCS die in four months - union

Five babies who have died in Sydney in the past four months were known to the NSW Department
of Community Services (DOCS), it's been reported today.

Four of the babies were under the age of one and all deaths will be examined by the
coroner, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

It says DOC's staff are overworked, insufficiently trained and unable to cope with
the 400 child abuse reports received each day.

The Public Service Association claims fewer than one in seven reports of abuse are
being fully investigated and some urgent cases have gone unattended.

A spokeswoman for DOCS denies that five babies died "while in DOCS care".

DOCS also denies union claims that 80 high priority cases in Sydney's east have not
been acted on because of understaffing.

AAP RTV sal/psm/

KEYWORD: DOCS (SYDNEY)

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