Tuesday, 13 August 2024

Albury Wodonga Health

Bill TILLEY (Benambra) (19:14): (767) I wish to raise a matter for the attention of the Minister for Health. The action I seek is for the minister to ensure that the $558 million makeover of the Albury Wodonga Health Albury campus includes at the minimum a 700-space increase in car parks. The preferred option in the latest master plan of this makeover is a 300-space car park update. That is simply not enough. The lack of parking at Albury hospital is an absolute joke at present, let alone what the future may hold. Last Wednesday there were 237 cars parked on the streets, pedestrian islands, roadside verges and so forth. The designated car parks were also absolutely chockers and full.

This is not a new issue. It was first raised during the planning for a new emergency department back in 2022. The emergency department improvements with extra beds, staff and an extended footprint took up 93 car spaces, and the consultants found that even before those losses the hospital was 82 car park spaces short of what was needed. The 175-car space shortage was partly remedied by a 10-year lease on a block on the other side of the road that provided 105 car spaces. The lease expires at the same time the Victorian government expects to complete the makeover.

I have got emails – or you can call them notes like last time. The story continues. The emails are between health bureaucrats, obtained from a New South Wales Legislative Council document motion, and say all parking will return to the hospital site by 2032. By that time you will have the 237-car excess, as identified last week, and another 175-space shortfall from the emergency department development, having handed back the temporary car park. There will be in future an extra 526 staff – about 263 car spaces – and an extra 146 beds, or about 38 car spaces. That is 713 spaces, without including the loss of existing car parks.

I also have an email from Health Infrastructure New South Wales – Steve Hall – dated back to 24 ‍August 2023 that sheds further light on this flawed plan. They are the lead on this Victorian government hospital. Mr Hall talks about the cost of car parking. He notes all options for the medical tower are over budget. A 700-space car park will cost $40 million, and if they go that way, they will have to compromise on core clinical scope. That is including operating theatres, beds et cetera. If they cut back on the building, they could get away with a smaller, cheaper car park. You could not make this stuff up. I guess that even the general manager of Albury council when faced with the shortfall in parking created by the new emergency department plans in February 2022 suggested the authorities think about making it a hospital bike designation.