Border mayors have discussed a new Albury-Wodonga hospital with a federal minister in Canberra. or signup to continue reading Kylie King (Albury), Ron Mildren (Wodonga), Pat Bourke (Federation) and Sophie Price (Indigo) saw Assistant Minister for Rural and Regional Health Emma McBride at Parliament House on Friday, July 5. The 20-minute session was arranged through liaison with Indi MP Helen Haines and Farrer MP Sussan Ley after Wodonga Council's health forum in March.
Dr Haines, who was also party to the meeting along with Wodonga Council chief executive Matthew Hyde and acting Albury Council chief executive Tracey Squire, explained its basis. "The purpose of the meeting was to make the case for a single-site hospital on the Border and to explain the difficulties we're experiencing and to ask the federal government to play a role," Dr Haines said. She said the expectation was that Ms McBride would report the meeting to federal Health Minister Mark Butler with hope of federal intervention given the NSW and Victorian governments' unwillingness to consider a new hospital site.
Cr Mildren said: "We just basically gave a whole lot of information as to what's going on and offered possible courses to a solution and that was about it." The meeting came ahead of Better Border Health's hospital forum at The Cube in Wodonga which will call for a pause to the planned Albury hospital upgrade. The event will not be attended by key Albury figures with mayor Kylie King, NSW MP Justin Clancy.
