NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has been forced to defend spending billions of dollars on sports stadiums while sick children wait for operations in hospitals.
Ms Berejiklian confirmed she'd met with a family in the Sydney suburb of Artarmon after their daughter's surgery, scheduled for the Children's Hospital at Westmead, was abruptly cancelled.
It was one of five surgeries cancelled that day because of a lack of available beds, 2GB reported on Friday.
"I do empathise extremely with the families," Ms Berejiklian told the radio station.
"You want to know what's happening before Christmas in particular and it is very stressful when things are delayed."
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Ms Berejiklian said the hospital was undergoing a $900 million upgrade to be completed by 2020.
Despite the commitment to future improvements, there were existing issues that she and Health Minister Brad Hazzard were working to fix, Ms Berejiklian added.
The premier defended spending $2 billion on two stadium rebuilds in Sydney while hospitals faced issues. She insisted her government could fund both.
"People who raise issued with stadiums are really asking, as premier, does she get that hospitals and education have to be a government's priority," she said.
"Of course I do. We've doubled the amount of money we're spending on health and education infrastructure."
A NSW Health spokesman told AAP the department was working hard to avoid cancellations and was putting in place stop-gap responses until upgrades are completed.
The department will begin building in January a six-bed high-observation unit to free up beds in intensive care and will recruit additional nursing staff.
The Sydney Children's Hospitals Network will also work to better co-ordinate capacity between Westmead and Randwick hospitals.
Balancing emergency presentations and planned complex surgery within the network is challenging, the spokesman acknowledged on Friday.
"Each patient is assessed on medical urgency, with life-threatening cases taking priority."
