Thursday, 29 August 2024

Albury Wodonga Health

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (18:07): (1110) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Health. The action that I seek is for the minister to conduct genuine consultation with the Wodonga community before the Allan Labor government proceeds with its plan to close the emergency department at the Wodonga hospital site. The latest iteration of the plan to meet the future health needs of the 300,000 people under the care of Albury Wodonga Health was unveiled last week. It has been labelled the ‘concept design report’. It confirmed what we already knew. The Albury hospital makeover is underfunded and the cloth is being cut to fit the budget. It highlights the dysfunctional planning process of contradictions and confusion, promises and platitudes and failures and foolishness. It is a plan by public service lackeys to please the minister rather than meet the health needs of the community.

What was going to be a world-class single-site hospital is now going to remain divided between the Albury campus and the Wodonga hospital. A clinical services building that was 10-storeys in the planning documents six months ago has been cut to seven. What was going to be an extra 125 beds is now 80. The car park has gone from seven storeys to ‘To be confirmed’. The paediatric ward and at least one operating theatre will be empty shells to be fitted out only when they get more money. The only notable point is the repeated reference to Wodonga being a non-emergency care hub. That is code for plans to shut the emergency department at Wodonga, an ED that sees almost 28,000 people a year.

I understand the Wodonga Hospital Entity Service Plan, which will set the future of the Wodonga hospital, underscores this closure. There is no timeline for these changes. The service plan says this will only happen when the Albury ED is capable of coping with the full demand of the catchment, but how will that happen? The Albury emergency department was recently upgraded to 34 points of care – cubicle beds and the like. It sees around 40,000 patients a year. It is a Victorian hospital, and despite the recent upgrade it is already under siege. Today signs were erected there to encourage paramedics to do stretching exercises while they were stuck there due to ramping – or ‘bed block’, as the signs say. Population projections suggest that by 2037 the Albury ED will need an extra 16 points of care. Now add to that the demand that will be redirected from Wodonga: 28,000 people, 15 points of care. Despite this massive increase in projected demand, there is no funding for the required extra 31 cubicles at Albury. It is now 176 days since we called for documents on this redevelopment, and it is no surprise that we are still waiting, because this government does not want to share the real plans that they have with the Albury–Wodonga community.