NSW and Victorian health ministers discuss Albury Hospital Master Plan

The Border Mail

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park and Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas met at Albury Base Hospital on Wednesday, September 6 2023, to discuss the Master Plan.

Transcript

00:00 So there's been a lot of work going on over the last 10 months in terms of masterplanning

00:04 and weighing up the various options and prioritisations around service adjacencies and those sorts

00:09 of things and we look forward to releasing that probably late September, early October.

00:14 The question was though, will the public get to see it?

00:17 Absolutely.

00:18 Let's be clear, we are delivering a building here.

00:21 We are not building a Greenfields Hospital.

00:23 We are going to take great advantage of the existing facilities.

00:27 We have $36 million invested into a facility that is set to open shortly.

00:34 We have an Australian leading cancer centre.

00:39 We have a cardiac cath lab.

00:41 We have the University of New South Wales here in this precinct.

00:45 We have accommodation for patients and staff available in this precinct.

00:51 It just makes sense.

00:52 Are you confident in 10 years' time this upgrade will meet the needs of the community given

00:56 how fast it's growing?

00:57 Well I'm confident that it will certainly meet the needs going forwards initially but

01:02 I'm also confident that people like Mr Clancy, Bill from this local health service and the

01:07 community more broadly will not want to see a stop.

01:11 There will always be expansion going on and calls for expansion of services down the track.

01:16 I know in my own community I'm working on that right now.

01:20 We shouldn't be thinking in the next 6 months, in the next 12 months but we should be thinking

01:25 long term and this is an opportunity and a plan to get this right.

01:28 I think it does do that but I also expect that local members, local mayors who we've

01:33 got with us today, local residents and local stakeholder groups including clinicians will

01:39 continue to be knocking on my door, on Justin's door, on the Chair's door and on Minister

01:44 Thomas' door to make sure that we look forward.

01:47 That's a part of our job.

01:49 Health is not something that is static.

01:51 Health is something that continues to evolve.

01:53 You've always got to be looking at what is happening in your community, not just in terms

01:57 of population growth but also in terms of their health outcomes and what we need to

02:02 deliver in terms of those health services.

02:04 You've been accused of neglecting the people of Wodonga and the Wodonga Council itself

02:09 which is I assume very close to home for you.

02:13 What do you say to those accusations?

02:15 Well I don't accept them at all.

02:18 I'm very committed to ensuring that the people of Wodonga continue to have access to world

02:24 class health care and I'm confident that with the transition of maternity services here

02:30 to Albury, co-location of acute care will deliver better outcomes for the people of

02:36 Wodonga.

02:37 And I want to be very clear, hospital services will continue to be delivered in Wodonga and

02:44 that's why I'm pleased that the work has already commenced on planning for the future of the

02:49 Wodonga site once those maternity services are able to be located here on the Albury

02:55 site.

02:56 Why did your Zoom meeting go with Fon Milton the other day?

02:59 Oh well I was very happy to meet with the Mayor of Wodonga.

03:03 I've met with previous mayors, the previous Mayor of Wodonga too as you would expect in

03:08 my former capacity as Minister for Regional Development.

03:12 And I made it very clear to the Mayor and to the CEO that the best way to engage with

03:19 this project is to get on with the project.

03:22 We are delivering a new building right here and to continue to campaign against that is

03:28 not a very fruitful exercise.

03:31 The way to engage with government, the way to engage with Albury Wodonga Health Service

03:38 is to get on board with helping shape the future of this health service including the

03:43 new more than half billion dollar clinical services building that will be built here

03:47 in Albury.

03:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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