On Thursday, a combination of banked up hospital beds and too few paramedics left the city with no free ambulances for half an hour.

Australian Paramedic Association representative James Kydd said all four Albury ambulances and eight paramedics, himself included, were unable to respond to calls as they waited for patients to be admitted.

“There’s the possibility of a major incident going down, a major vehicle accident or cardiac arrest and there will be a delay,” he said.

Mr Kydd said Albury needs more paramedics or patients would suffer.

“The government are embarking on vanity projects such as the $2 billion spent on the recreation of a sporting stadium, but we’re not seeing funds being injected into areas that have been neglected for years and years,” Mr Kydd said.

“Unfortunately unless something is done, the system is at breaking point, and a member of the public is going to end up in a situation where we might not be able to respond in a timely manner.”

NSW Ambulance said they were working closely with Albury hospital to minimise any delays in safely transferring care of patients from paramedics to hospital staff, but did not respond to questions about staffing levels in Albury.

Mr Kydd claims he has been told there is no interest in increasing paramedic levels at this time. 

He said there was also no dedicated duty crew on Thursday night in Albury due to unforeseen absences, only on-call paramedics. 

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Mr Kydd praised the government’s announcement of a new emergency department in Albury but said more paramedics were still needed.

He said hospital staff do a fantastic job but when there were no beds left to fill a bed block occurred and ambulances banked up.

An Albury Wodonga Health spokeswoman said the emergency department experienced a high demand over the Christmas period with more than 100 presentations a day, and all patients were seen and received medical attention.

Albury hospital is managed by the Victoria health department who did not respond to questions about whether anything had been done to address bed blocks since they occurred in June and September.

“For the last quarter, Albury Wodonga Health has performed well with 89.5 per cent of ambulance patients being transferred within the recommended time,” she said.