Medical professionals and the NSW-Victoria border community have again been left disappointed by a lack of funding for a new hospital after the NSW state budget.
Treasurer Matt Kean handed down his first budget on Tuesday which included $45 million for the redevelopment of Albury Hospital.
Border Medical Association deputy chair David Clancy said the funding did not come as a surprise, but rather an election promise made by former premier Gladys Berejiklian in January 2019.
"It has been a long time coming," he said.
"This is what we need in order to provide some temporary relief to the hospital because we are bleeding as it is.
The association, along with other medicos and community members, have been rallying for a new world-class, single-site hospital on the border for some time as the current facility struggles to keep up with growing demand.
Dr Clancy said the average length of stay for patients coming through the emergency department is 12 hours and the hospital is at a crisis point.
"That's a hell of a long time to stay in a noisy, crowded, intense environment where really you can't get the rest and respite that you need when you're really sick," he said.
"We need additional ward capacity. We need additional theatre capacity so we can continue to do the elective surgery that we're really constrained doing at the moment and, also, for additional emergency surgery."
Important funding
It is expected the money from the budget would go towards improving the existing facility and services at the hospital.
"This will probably be for something that will make the existing site better, to look after our patients in some degree, however it doesn't come close to what is required," said border medical oncologist and associate professor at UNSW, Christopher Steer.
He said the investment would help services transition to a new hospital.
"We need this to help us catch up and get us through to when the larger hospital is committed to," he said.
"[But] we know what we need. The voice of the community, the voice of the voters, the voice of the potential patients of the region need to be listened to."
Despite calls for funding falling on deaf ears, Dr Clancy agreed the investment was needed.
"We can't bite the hand that feeds us," he said.
"We actually need to acknowledge that this is something that we desperately need as an interim measure.
"The more desperate we get the louder we have to become. Until it's signed on the dotted line we need to continue to push."
He called on the whole community to band together and continue their fight for adequate funding.
Member for Albury Justin Clancy said a meeting was being planned with the NSW Regional Health Minister Bonnie Taylor and Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley, but a date had not been locked in yet.
"We'll continue to drive forward on that and advocate for that.
"There will be further investment we're looking at to make sure that we are working between the two governments to make sure that we're getting the right outcomes for health on the border."
The hospital missed out on funding in the Victorian state budget which was delivered in May, and the southern state's government is yet to make any sort of contribution as it waits for a master plan to be complete.
