Tuesday, 29 October 2024

Albury Wodonga Health

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (13:43): It is now 34 weeks since the Parliament passed my motion requiring the government to produce documents related to the Albury Wodonga Health redevelopment, but the government has still not released them. The Allan Labor government is hiding these documents because the government’s modelling just does not stack up. A single-site hospital was originally supported after the recommendation of the Albury Wodonga Health 2021Clinical Services Plan, but because of Labor’s financial mismanagement the government is trying to save money with a half-baked hospital renovation, and it is the people of Wodonga who will suffer. Now 200 doctors who are members of the Border Medical Association have signed their names to a letter to the premiers of Victoria and New South Wales saying that the planned redevelopment of the existing Albury–Wodonga hospital site will cripple healthcare services in the region for a generation. Patient care is already suffering because capacity falls short of existing demand, but the proposed redevelopment will fail to improve capacity for increased demand in the future.

Without a new or larger hospital, hospital functionality and safety will be seriously compromised as the existing footprint is just far too small. Local doctors and healthcare professionals have campaigned for years for a new single-site hospital, and they are now urgently calling on the government to (a) halt the current redevelopment plans, (b) boost capacity by constructing modular wards and operating theatres and (c) commit to fully funding a new greenfield single-site hospital. The people of Albury and Wodonga deserve nothing less than a full investment in the future of their health care.