Wednesday, 8 March 2023

Albury Wodonga Health

Bill TILLEY (Benambra) (09:51): Albury Wodonga Health is not in crisis. It is in a full-scale tailspin into the abyss. Now, had the Minister for Health truly had the real commitment to Albury Wodonga Health and attended the AGM held in Wodonga last week, she would be hitting the eject button. She would go back to the table and renegotiate the parochial interstate hospital infrastructure deal – and I have got to say New South Wales, Smallbury, you have outdone yourself on this one. What we heard at the AGM was they start every day down 35 beds – that is 35 patients over capacity. They prop up staff numbers with 100 fly-in fly-out workers in motels every night so there are estimates of over $100,000 a day in costs to the hospital budget.

The hospital is simply not fit for purpose. The staff have been gagged, but the patients talk. In two days last week in Wodonga they performed 120 surgeries. They have five beds in recovery. The overflow defaulted to day surgery wards, and they are sitting in chairs. All hail the Albury-Wodonga hospital reno – God help us! It is five years away at best, it is a partial fix with no future funding, the business case is kept secret, if it even exists at all, and Wodonga hospital is completely ignored. The staff are exhausted; they are stressed. The community is outraged. Does someone have to die? Do the clinical outcomes have to be so poor and continue to be poor? The reno is not the solution. Please get back to the table. Be our hero, Labor government.