The longest surgery wait list, budget cuts and a disputed $500m hospital fix

In the border community of Albury-Wodonga, the waiting list for planned surgery is already the worst in regional Victoria.

Now the local health service – like many across the state – is bracing for budget cuts after it was told by the state government to find millions of dollars in savings.

Better Border Health director Michelle Cowan wants the Victorian and NSW governments to reconsider their hospital redevelopment plans.Credit: Jason Robins

And while a half a billion-dollar redevelopment of the area’s hospital – funded by the Victorian and NSW governments – is in the works, it too has become the symbol of frustration.

Residents and healthcare professionals say it will fall far short of the region’s growing needs.

Local lobby group Better Border Health has organised a sold-out community forum in Albury-Wodonga on Sunday to demand the state governments to rethink their redevelopment plan and instead build a new hospital from scratch on a “greenfield” site.

The planned surgery waiting list at Albury-Wodonga hit 3378 in the March quarter of this year. Bendigo Health – which covers a similar sized population– had 1737 at the same time.

This week, The Age revealed Victorian doctors were warning that state government health cuts would result in cutting elective surgery, which would undo the work done to get waiting lists to their lowest level since the pandemic.

Wodonga woman Vicky Lancaster has been waiting for a knee and patella replacement since June last year.

Although her mobility is currently good, Lancaster said there were days the pain was so severe she could not move. “I have days when my knee just gives out,” she said.

After being told she might need to wait three to four years for her operation in Albury, Lancaster put her name down for surgery in Wagga Wagga – 90 minutes away.

Vicki Lancaster is bracing for a long wait for knee replacement surgery. Credit: Jason Robins

Lancaster said she feared the state government’s health funding cuts would only worsen the pressure on planned surgery waiting times.

The planned forum comes as the Albury-Wodonga Health service braces for substantial budget cuts with management revealing last month it needed to find $3 million in savings.

Better Border Health board director Michelle Cowan said the group had identified a shortage of between 30 and 70 beds. “Any funding cuts to operating costs while we’re in such a severe bed shortage crisis is just another kick in the guts,” she said.

Cowan said local health services were already under immense pressure and that the region’s hospitals were dozens of beds short of meeting Albury-Wodonga’s requirements. “We’re barely coping with the presentations that are arriving.”

Albury-Wodonga Health operates two hospital campuses on either side of the Murray River and both sites have emergency departments. In April, a new $36 million emergency department opened at the Albury hospital. Most planned surgery is carried out in Albury.

In 2022, the Victorian and NSW governments jointly announced they would deliver a $558 million redevelopment of the Albury Base Hospital to better serve people living in Albury-Wodonga.

Better Border Health argues the new development should be built at a different location because the Albury hospital site is too small for the community’s growing needs. Albury-Wodonga has a combined population of just over 100,000, but that is expected to grow by about 21,500 people by 2036.

Better Border Health argues Albury-Wodonga has “two undersized, tired hospitals” and patients were regularly transferred between campuses, resulting in stressful delays.

Residents and healthcare professionals say Albury-Wodonga is a growing community that needs a bigger hospital to meet its needs.

“What happens is that patients might present in Wodonga, but the acuity of their condition is such that they need to be transferred to Albury,” Cowan said.

Wodonga paramedic Samantha Burbidge said ambulances were regularly queued up outside the hospitals, a problem known as ramping, while waiting to unload patients. She has joined the campaign lobbying for a hospital at a new site.

“The ramping is certainly the worst I’ve seen it,” Burbidge said. “We need a hospital that’s got a lot more capacity on the wards.”

A spokesperson for the state government said all Victorians deserved access to high quality and timely care regardless of where they lived, which was why they were proceeding with the redeveloped Albury-Wodonga hospital on the current site.

The spokesperson said the government was investing $20 billion in Victorian hospitals this year alone and an additional $8.8 billion “multi-year investment” in this year’s budget.

The government spokesperson said the latest Albury-Wodonga planned surgery data showed a 6 per cent improvement year-on-year and all category one patients were treated in the recommended time during the third quarter of 2024.

They insisted final budgets for health services would be set soon and discussions were continuing.

Local Liberal MP Bill Tilley urged the Victorian government to deliver more temporary “modular units” to help address the bed shortage at Albury-Wodonga.

Liberal member for Benambra Bill Tilley. Credit: Jason Robins

He also backed calls to build a hospital on a new site. “The best thing to do would be to stop the current project and look at a single site,” Tilley said.

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