Towong Shire mayor, Cr Andrew Whitehead, has said that the strong show of support at last week’s rally in Corryong was further evidence that communities in the North East know they are currently being short-changed on healthcare if the current proposal to redevelop Albury Hospital proceeds.

“I want to thank the people of Corryong and the wider community in and around Towong Shire for showing up in such large numbers at the rally,” he said.

“Seeing the Memorial Hall in Corryong full on a Sunday in winter shows the level of worry, despair and anger people are feeling in the North East about being treated as second class citizens when it comes to healthcare delivery.

“The community now feels like it is simply out of sight and out of mind in the eyes of the Victorian and New South Wales governments.

The system has let us down

“The community feels so let down because the governments in Melbourne and Sydney keep saying that the redevelopment will meet the future needs of the community, yet they will not come here and explain how themselves,” Cr Whitehead said.

“If we are getting it so wrong, come and explain to us why. Instead, so much correspondence remains unanswered and invitations remain completely ignored.

“Towong Shire Council invited the Victorian Treasurer and Member for Northern Victoria Region, Jaclyn Symes, Victorian Health Minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, and NSW Health Minister, Ryan Park, to the rally and we received no responses from them or their offices.

“Personal experiences shared at the rally painted the picture of a healthcare system that has let us so many of us down, me included.

“It also unveiled data that confirms this and that paints a grim picture of the future if the current deeply flawed redevelopment goes ahead.

“Despite all of this, the rally confirmed how admired and respected our North East doctors, nurses and other medical professionals are – but they are forced to work in suboptimal facilities.”

Guest speaker at the rally, Stan Stavros, Director – Better Border Health, shared data that proved that Albury Wodonga is missing out on its fair share of healthcare funding.

“Albury Wodonga Health is not a small country hospital,” he said.

“It is the largest regional health service between Sydney and Melbourne, serving one of the biggest inland populations in Australia, equal in size to Bendigo and Ballarat, and behind only Canberra and Toowoomba. It is the largest in-land community in Australia.

“However, despite its size and importance Albury Wodonga Health has far fewer hospital beds, operating theatres, and dialysis chairs, than comparable and significantly smaller centres.

“Every single day, Albury Wodonga Health is short between 30 to 70 beds which means it is currently running at 110 per cent –125 per cent capacity. When there are no beds, patients cannot be admitted and ambulances are ramped outside for hours, unable to unload patients and return to their towns.

“Ramping of ambulances at Albury Hospital has become an all-too-common occurrence and the effects of this ripple deeply into the entire North East region.

“For example, in Corryong, one ambulance crew covers the whole area. A return trip to Albury takes four hours without delays. If ambulances are ramping at Albury Hospital that could result in at least six hours or more and that’s six hours with no ambulance in Corryong and if it happens overnight the town can be without cover for up to 16 hours.

“People in our region have stopped calling 000 altogether, instead driving loved ones with seizures, chest pain or trauma to hospital themselves because they simply do not believe an ambulance will get there in time.

“Directly because of this lack of beds, we have seen elderly patients from Corryong discharged from Albury Wodonga Health in the middle of the night with no transport, no money and no plan,” Mr Stavros said.

“These patients often have no other options other than to call volunteers in desperation, who are doing an incredible job to scramble and find them a bed in a motel or drive dangerous rural roads in the dark to get them home safely. Others are taking risks on those roads themselves, driving to Albury between 1am and 5am just to avoid long ED waits.

“This is the level of desperation we have reached here in the North East.

“The current proposed redevelopment of the existing Albury Base Hospital that will add just 35 beds in four to five years’ time and it will not even come close to cover the current shortfalls. An additional 150-200 beds is what is required to meet our needs in that time, not 35.

“We need proper investment that reflects our population and our role as a major inland health hub. It should come as no great shock that our local doctors have called it ‘a shinier version of the same’ and the same means continued bed block, ambulance ramping and longer waits.”

Cr Whithead added that “The truth is the real solution has already been identified.

“In 2021 a comprehensive masterplan, underpinned by the 2021 Clinical Services Plan, was developed. It involved clinicians, state government officials, Albury Wodonga Health executives, and community members.

“That plan overwhelmingly recommended a new hospital on a new site, a greenfield development that would finally give our community the capacity, flexibility and future growth we need.

“Each of the speakers at the rally added to already overwhelming evidence that the North East is getting short changed on healthcare and will do so for a generation to come if the current redevelopment of Albury Hospital goes ahead.

“Our community now feels like the real border up here is not the one on the map between NSW and Victoria but one between the communities here and the governments of Victoria and NSW.

Other speakers at the rally included Cr Michael Gobel, Mayor Wodonga City Council; Cr Kevin Mack, Mayor Albury City Council; Dr Lachlan McKeeman, Deputy Secretary of the Border Medical Association; Pastor Carol Allen, Corryong; Kate Wheeler, Corryong; and Russell and Robyn Kelly, Mitta Valley. Letters from local politicians Bill Tilley and Helen Haines were also read out at the rally.

Crisis needs fixing now

Member for Benambra, Bill Tilley, was unable to attend the hospital rally in Corryong last week but he sent a letter stating his current position on the issue, saying that more urgent action needs to be taken in the interim.

“Our health crisis is the here and now” he said.

“We can argue about the shape of a greenfield site and that is the long-term aim but right at this moment we need extra beds in our hospitals so that ambulances don’t get parked out the front of Albury Base and Wodonga Hospital for hours on end.

“We need them so those ambulances are back on the road, dealing with life and death emergencies

“We need them to make in-roads into the public surgery waiting list as almost one in four on the public surgery wait list have been there for more than 12 months – the worst in the state for this metric.

About 1-in-10 surgeries are cancelled largely due to the lack of beds – the 3rd worst in the state.

“Each week we have between 75 and 80 cases of people exceeding the benchmark of more than 24 hours stuck in emergency, waiting for a bed in a hospital ward.

“So, in the long-term we must work towards a greenfield site but with the advancement of the current project that is being pushed through come hell or highwater that might be 10 or 15 years away.

“In the interim we must make that tower that they’re going to build at Albury Base, the best it can be and that means it delivers on what was promised in 2022/23 and that includes but is not limited to the following:-

• A paediatric ward, not a ghost floor that hasn’t been fitted out.
• Ten operating theatres, not a shell of one because the budget can’t manage the cost of the fitout.
• A helipad.
• A multi-storey car park.
• 17 dialysis chairs.

“We know that the NSW and Victorian governments have refused the funding for 20 hospital beds at Mercy Health in Albury and have ignored calls to deploy modular wards, often used by Defence, to provide additional ward beds. They have only provided operational funding for 9 of the 16 short-stay beds at Albury base.

“Just one of these initiatives could ease the pressure on our ED, help reduce the waiting list and cut the wait times for ambulances.

“We need to keep calling for a greenfield site but don’t lose sight of the fact our health crisis desperately needs a more immediate fix.”

This article appeared in Corryong Courier, 21 August 2025.