Fifteen newborns were quarantined and at least two underwent surgery after a mystery disease swept the Melbourne's Royal Women's Hospital last week.

Reports indicate the babies required surgery for some kind of inflammatory bowel condition. The director of the Hospital’s neonatal services says such an outbreak is not unheard of, but the scale is alarming and they are still not sure what it is.

“We've looked extensively for viruses and bacteria and we've looked at some of the medications we've been giving so we've really looked far and wide and at this stage we haven't isolated a particular cause,” neonatal director Dr Carl Kuschel says, “a number of the babies we think had some sort of infection, we haven't been able to identify what it was... All the babies are better. We've put the usual infection control strategies in place and it seems to have settled down.”

Victorian Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews has blamed budget cuts for the blight in the system, saying “we feel for the parents involved and that's beyond the control of anyone... what this shows is after three years of cutbacks, there are no neonatal beds available, the stress in the system is unbelievable and this is what happens when you don't fund health properly.”

The Victorian Health Minister says that is not true, and blamed the Opposition: “The State Government has increased the number of neonatal intensive care beds in the state each year since it's been in Government, so there's clear steps in increase the capacity... Victoria has four neonatal intensive care units and they are focussed on delivering the highest quality care for those very small babies,” Minister David Davis says.

“That contrasts with the failure of Daniel Andrews and his government to put in place enough NICU [neonatal intensive care unit] capacity.”