Open Letter: The Cancellation of the Royal Children’s Hospital Grand Round on Children and War

We, the undersigned, write with deep concern and disappointment regarding the Royal Children’s Hospital’s decision to cancel its Grand Round on Children and War, which was scheduled for the 17th of September.

The Grand Round was to address one of the most urgent moral and humanitarian issues of our time: the devastating impact of armed conflict on children. Around the world — in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and beyond — children are being killed, starved, displaced, and traumatised. Hospitals are bombed, health workers attacked, and the fundamental protections of international humanitarian law are violated daily.

For the Royal Children’s Hospital, a world leader in child health and a proud advocate for children, to silence this conversation is shocking and profoundly disheartening. It risks sending the message that some children’s suffering is too politically inconvenient to acknowledge. Silence in the face of such atrocities is not apolitical — it is itself a political act, one that undermines the hospital’s vision of “a world where all kids thrive” and its values of being curious, courageous, inclusive and kind.

The Risks of Political Pressure

This decision appears to reflect political pressure rather than principle. If Australia’s leading children’s hospital can be swayed into cancelling an academic and humanitarian discussion, it sets a dangerous precedent. It signals that our medical and academic institutions can be silenced on the very issues where moral clarity and leadership are needed most.

Moral Injury to Healthcare Workers

As a healthcare worker, this decision causes me moral injury. It is our duty as healthcare workers to stand up for the rights of children. Children in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and many other conflict zones are being killed, maimed, starved, and traumatised. We recognise the devastating and lasting impacts of war on their physical and mental health. When we fail to fulfil this duty, we not only fail the children we serve, but we also harm the moral integrity of our profession. Through silencing an opportunity to engage in the topic of war and the impact on children, psychological safety for staff is severely compromised: many staff are feeling culturally and psychologically unsafe; grappling with moral injury with the current global crises, exacerbated by working within an institution that actively silences staff efforts to uphold core ethics, which predicate our work as healthcare professionals. As healthcare workers we are obligated to work in accordance with virtues of nonjudgement, beneficence and justice. This politicised decision by our CEO has compromised the core ethics of our institution and denied staff a learning opportunity, where our community could have come together to share expertise, and show solidarity in our concern for the grave impacts of war on children.

The Risks to Australian Values

Australians hold dear the values of fairness, compassion, and moral courage — especially when it comes to protecting children. By cancelling this Grand Round, RCH risks betraying those values. We cannot claim to be a society that protects children while turning away from the harshest realities they face in times of war.

Our Call

We call on the Royal Children’s Hospital to reinstate the Grand Round on Children and War. To cancel is to fail the very children the hospital exists to protect. To proceed is to honour Australia’s values, uphold the hospital’s own mission, and show true moral courage.

As health professionals, educators, and members of the community, we expect the Royal Children’s Hospital — as a global leader in paediatric health — to stand firmly for children everywhere, not retreat into silence.

Ethics are mere platitudes if they’re found wanting in the face of adversity. We have a moral duty to use our skills, expertise and platform to protect vulnerable children impacted by war.

Because when it comes to children in war, silence costs lives.