NSW Health Minister Ryan Park and Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas met at Albury Base Hospital on Wednesday, September 6 2023, to discuss the Master Plan.
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00:00 So there's been a lot of work going on over the last 10 months in terms of masterplanning
00:04 and weighing up the various options and prioritisations around service adjacencies and those sorts
00:09 of things and we look forward to releasing that probably late September, early October.
00:14 The question was though, will the public get to see it?
00:17 Absolutely.
00:18 Let's be clear, we are delivering a building here.
00:21 We are not building a Greenfields Hospital.
00:23 We are going to take great advantage of the existing facilities.
00:27 We have $36 million invested into a facility that is set to open shortly.
00:34 We have an Australian leading cancer centre.
00:39 We have a cardiac cath lab.
00:41 We have the University of New South Wales here in this precinct.
00:45 We have accommodation for patients and staff available in this precinct.
00:51 It just makes sense.
00:52 Are you confident in 10 years' time this upgrade will meet the needs of the community given
00:56 how fast it's growing?
00:57 Well I'm confident that it will certainly meet the needs going forwards initially but
01:02 I'm also confident that people like Mr Clancy, Bill from this local health service and the
01:07 community more broadly will not want to see a stop.
01:11 There will always be expansion going on and calls for expansion of services down the track.
01:16 I know in my own community I'm working on that right now.
01:20 We shouldn't be thinking in the next 6 months, in the next 12 months but we should be thinking
01:25 long term and this is an opportunity and a plan to get this right.
01:28 I think it does do that but I also expect that local members, local mayors who we've
01:33 got with us today, local residents and local stakeholder groups including clinicians will
01:39 continue to be knocking on my door, on Justin's door, on the Chair's door and on Minister
01:44 Thomas' door to make sure that we look forward.
01:47 That's a part of our job.
01:49 Health is not something that is static.
01:51 Health is something that continues to evolve.
01:53 You've always got to be looking at what is happening in your community, not just in terms
01:57 of population growth but also in terms of their health outcomes and what we need to
02:02 deliver in terms of those health services.
02:04 You've been accused of neglecting the people of Wodonga and the Wodonga Council itself
02:09 which is I assume very close to home for you.
02:13 What do you say to those accusations?
02:15 Well I don't accept them at all.
02:18 I'm very committed to ensuring that the people of Wodonga continue to have access to world
02:24 class health care and I'm confident that with the transition of maternity services here
02:30 to Albury, co-location of acute care will deliver better outcomes for the people of
02:36 Wodonga.
02:37 And I want to be very clear, hospital services will continue to be delivered in Wodonga and
02:44 that's why I'm pleased that the work has already commenced on planning for the future of the
02:49 Wodonga site once those maternity services are able to be located here on the Albury
02:55 site.
02:56 Why did your Zoom meeting go with Fon Milton the other day?
02:59 Oh well I was very happy to meet with the Mayor of Wodonga.
03:03 I've met with previous mayors, the previous Mayor of Wodonga too as you would expect in
03:08 my former capacity as Minister for Regional Development.
03:12 And I made it very clear to the Mayor and to the CEO that the best way to engage with
03:19 this project is to get on with the project.
03:22 We are delivering a new building right here and to continue to campaign against that is
03:28 not a very fruitful exercise.
03:31 The way to engage with government, the way to engage with Albury Wodonga Health Service
03:38 is to get on board with helping shape the future of this health service including the
03:43 new more than half billion dollar clinical services building that will be built here
03:47 in Albury.
03:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]