Wednesday, 4 February 2026

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (18:33): (2268) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Health, and the action I seek is a full list of all the elements that have been cut, reduced or deferred from the Albury Wodonga Health hospital redevelopment compared to what was promised in 2022 and set out in the master plan at that time. What we are seeing at Albury Wodonga Health is not a single failure and not a temporary setback, it is a compounding systemic failure, one that has locked the health service into a downward spiral – and I mean downward spiral because the bed shortages, workforce distress and growing surgery waiting lists continue to erode confidence in the health service every single day.

The despair felt by this community is the result of a health minister who refuses to listen and who refuses to acknowledge the folly of an unfunded and overpromised project for the future needs of the 300,000 people served by the nation’s only cross-border health service. The funding committed to a medical tower by Labor at the 11th hour of the 2022 state election was never enough. The passage of time has exposed just how inadequate it was. Instead of relieving pressure, it has entrenched it. Despite the release of the artist’s impressions for the tower last week, the community is deeply worried. There are simply not enough beds being delivered. And they should be worried, because it is all there for people to see. The health service regularly starts the day 50 to 70 beds short of what they need. Recently 10 of the 12 ED beds at Wodonga Hospital were taken up by admitted patients. The ED had just two beds for an emergency.

The fear is that existing demand will overtake any new beds. Clinicians say the promised increase in beds does not stack up. I have spoken to these clinicians on multiple occasions. They are at the coalface – they know the pressures, they can see what is happening and they are very concerned for their patients. They are concerned about the paediatric ghost floor in the tower, left empty until Labor finds the money to fit it out – and we know how short money is because of the debt that is spiralling out of control under Labor. An operating theatre will be left as a shell as well. The helipad is gone. The multi-deck car park is abandoned. This is what we know. But Minister, what don’t we know? What else promised on October 2022 has quietly disappeared? The relentless pressure caused by chronic bed shortages with no foreseeable end in sight has driven a collapse in staff morale. Albury Wodonga Health recorded the worst results of any public sector organisation in Victoria in the People Matter survey. 140 clinicians have formally endorsed a vote of no confidence in management. Local media reports that the New South Wales health minister has sought a ‘please explain’ from Victoria over internal staffing matters. Minister, this is a mess. This is how health systems fail, not suddenly but through neglect, denial and refusal to act while there is still time. It is too simplistic to point the finger at local management; the chair and CEO warned the health minister in late 2023 that the funding was inadequate. The buck stops with the minister.