Cancer patients are being reassured that a lack of funding isn't to blame for dozens of empty beds at a new Victorian cancer centre.
Health Minister Jill Hennessy says the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre was built with additional capacity to deal with future population growth.
The $1 billion hospital was designed to accommodate increased demand at Peter Mac, which moved to the VCCC last month after 22 years at its East Melbourne site.
The Herald Sun has reported that dozens of the promised 202 beds and chemotherapy treatment chairs at the newly opened hospital remain closed because it was opened without the money to use them.
But Ms Hennessy says the claims are "blatantly wrong and incorrect".
The government sat down with health providers and hospitals each year to discuss the predicted demands and funding needed, she added.
"We base our funding on what Peter Mac tells us is their predicted demand and there is a provision at the VCCC to expand the number of beds in the future," Ms Hennessy told reporters on Thursday.
"Modern cancer services are not just about having bed based services and the VCCC has more capacity than it previously had."
She said other hospitals, including the Royal Children's Hospital, Box Hill Hospital and the Royal Women's, were all built with extra capacity for the future.
The Royal Children's Hospital demand grew quicker than expected and Box Hill and the Royal Women's are yet to received the demand needed to utilise the extra beds, she said.
Peter Mac declined to comment.
