Mayor's Message 2 June, 2023

Hello everyone, 

Today I want to revisit why Indigo Shire is advocating so strongly for a new single site Albury Wodonga Hospital.

While there seems to be a general consensus that the proposed $558M redevelopment of the existing Albury Base Hospital is a fait accompli, we are deeply concerned that this will not deliver the best possible health services for our region or address the serious issue of ambulance response times in Indigo Shire. 

We would like to see the business case that supports the Albury Base option as well as details on how many beds will be available to service the region and how this option will support our communities in 20 to 30 years from now.

We are particularly concerned a redeveloped Albury Base Hospital will do little to improve ambulance response times, given the constraints with the existing road network, which impacts ambulance movements to and from the emergency department. We don’t believe adequate consideration has been given to transport and accessibility.

We see a strong link between a new hospital that is accessible, has room to expand and provides allied health services in one location with improved ambulance response times. Our communities deserve high quality, accessible health services and we don’t believe this is what they’ll get with the Albury option.

We’re calling on community to speak up and lobby the Victorian and NSW State Health Ministers to reconsider their decision and also for details of the business case and or master plan to be publicly released.

Regards

Sophie Price