Wodonga Council — Purpose Built Hospital

Albury Wodonga provides important health services for Albury-Wodonga and the wider region. Increased demand for health services is expected, as the community ages and delivers an increase in the proportion of the region’s population with more complex health care needs..

Albury Wodonga Health’s present utilisation of medical and surgical bed stock is close to 100 per cent (compared to the Victorian benchmark of 85 per cent). This means that AWH has near constant access block, cannot flow patients through the health service and is unable to admit all patients from ED that need inpatient support.

AWH serves a larger population than its peer Victorian regional health services, except Barwon and Bendigo Health. Relative to other similar sized health services, AWH maintains a high level of activity and presentations, despite current capacity constraints.

The Clinical Services Plan sets out the necessary actions for AWH to achieve its ambitions as one of Victoria’s largest regional health services. Key themes from the major recommendations are as follows.

Consolidate acute and sub-acute services to a single site to ensure safety and efficiency
Enhance AWH’s role as a regional leader, including pursuing regional service models in a range of specialty areas
Expand the range and complexity of admitted and non-admitted clinical services offered
Become a regional training hub with the ability to develop and attract highly skilled and specialised staff
Enhance AWH’s role as a research organisation
Build and strengthen close partnerships to enable delivery of this plan

Advocacy objective

A new purpose-built, single-site hospital that meets the regional community’s needs now and into the future and the need for information and transparency regarding the business case and data that supports the current position of a redevelopment.

STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT

Council Plan - Strong, Sound and Responsible Leadership

PARTNERS

Victorian Department of Health, NSW Department of Health, Albury Wodonga Health, councils (16) in the AWH catchment

OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES

What we know

Alignment that a single-site hospital is needed to service the Albury-Wodonga community.

Funding at this stage includes a $450m commitment from both state governments as well as $108m previously committed funding.

Health Infrastructure NSW is delivering the build of the project which is considered to be at the master planning stage of the hospital build cycle.

Albury Wodonga continues to grow steadily and needs a hospital that will meet the increasing demand for health services, driven by population growth and the high proportion of young families as well as the aging population.

WHAT WE DON’T KNOW

Where is the economic modelling that points to a value for money proposition?

Where is the data to inform the decision-making?

What are the outcomes of the master planning undertaken to date?

What the allocation of $558m will actually deliver, recognising $108m was funding announced and allocated previously?

What will be the impacts on the present hospital site of staging and levels of disruption?

What is the future of the Albury Wodonga Regional Cancer Centre?
Is there a plan to resolve the consequential cross-border impacts of the decision?

What we are asking

That meaningful engagement is undertaken with the community, particularly in regards to the future of the Wodonga Hospital site.

That any solution that looks at the regional catchment long-term with a hospital that will meet its needs for at least the next 40 years.

The project includes partnering with all levels of government.

That the solution considers future opportunities including co-location with private hospital, leveraging Defence medic opportunities, an education and research centre and inclusion of AI and virtual reality.

What needs to be considered

There is an expectation from the council, clinicians, and community that there would be a high degree of transparency from the state governments regarding the provision of information and the rationale behind the decision that supports the one stage redevelopment investment decision.

A desktop analysis across Wodonga identified several large tracts of land that could be a potential greenfield site for a single-site hospital with direct access on to Bandiana Link on the Hume Highway. There may also be similar greenfield sites in Albury that could be investigated.

This is a redevelopment, not a new hospital.