Victorian bureaucrats pointed to the dumping of the Commonwealth Games in their state as evidence they could not commit any more money to the redevelopment of Albury hospital.
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They cited the decision of then Premier Daniel Andrews to walk away from staging the 2026 sporting event when the prospect of adding to the $558 million budget to upgrade Albury hospital was raised.
The public servants' approach is revealed in an email written by NSW Health executive director, strategic reform and planning Vince McTaggart, a central figure in planning for Albury-Wodonga hospital needs.
Writing to NSW Health Minister Ryan Park's chief of staff Matthew McLean, Mr McTaggart tells of the "Boarder (sic) Medical Association" wanting to meet the minister.
He then mentions having spoken to Albury Wodonga Health chief executive Bill Appleby.
"I also spelt out to Bill Appleby the CE of Albury Wodonga Health that there is no more additional dollars on the table and that he and his team will have to work on getting the best bang for their buck out of the $558 million," Mr McTaggart wrote.
"Can also confirm the Victorian's (sic) indicated they certainly had no more dollars to add to the redevelopment....they kept quoting their Premier's announcement from Tuesday about the Commonwealth Games."
Mr McTaggart was writing on Friday July 21, 2023, with Mr Andrews having announced three days previously that a cost blowout to more than $6 billion made the Games unaffordable.
He had met the Victorian bureaucrats in Albury on the Wednesday of that week.
While Mr McTaggart does not have the profile of Mr Park or Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas he is still a key player in the ongoing saga of Albury-Wodonga hospital services.
"I've been dealing with Albury Wodonga for the last nine years," Mr McTaggart told a NSW parliamentary hearing in February 2024.
"During that period, I've dealt with seven chief executives."
At that same hearing, Greens MP Amanda Cohn, whose parliamentary order uncovered Mr McTaggart's letter to Mr McLean, quizzed the public servant about his work on a project control group looking at hospital services in 2021.
In November that year then Albury Wodonga Health chief executive Michael Kalimnios sent an email to Mr McTaggart asked him about the progression of the hospital master plan, which ultimately recommended a new hospital known as a greenfields development as opposed to an upgrade, a brownfields.
"I understand there was a discussion about having both Departments discuss with the (AWH) Board their expected role in promoting the strategy moving forward, particularly with respect to brownfield development and staging process," Mr Kalimnios wrote.
After a question from Dr Cohn about that discussion, Mr McTaggart said: "There was discussion at the time over brownfield and greenfield, as was included in a number of the clinical services plans - the original clinical services plan. At the time, brownfield was considered an option."
Dr Cohn pointed out in December the master plan concluded a greenfields site was the preferred option.
"How is it possible that you were talking about the expected role of the board in promoting the strategy with respect to brownfield development and staging when you hadn't finalised a master plan process that actually then recommended greenfield?" Dr Cohn asked.
Mr McTaggart replied: "Dr Cohn, that document recommended either greenfield or brownfield. I just put that on note.
"At the time that master plan was being prepared by Albury Wodonga Health, it hadn't been reviewed or approved by either Victoria or NSW."
Benambra MP Bill Tilley told the Victorian parliament last November that Mr McTaggart, two months before the master plan, was advising against a new Border hospital.
"On 6 October 2021, in briefing notes for a ministerial letter, senior NSW Health bureaucrat Vince McTaggart provided advice to the Parliamentary Secretary for Health that resulted in correspondence that said the NSW government was not considering the establishment of an additional hospital in the region," Mr Tilley said.
He concluded "NSW and senior management at Albury Wodonga Health had absolutely no intention of building the Border's much needed new hospital on anything but Albury base".
While deep in the bureaucratic cut and thrust over what will or won't be built at Albury hospital, Mr McTaggart was at the campus this month as a key dignitary for something already constructed.
He was the NSW government's most senior representative at the opening of the emergency department as Mr Park and the state's Parliamentary Secretary for Health were absent.
Mirroring his role as a behind-the-scenes bureaucrat, there was no speech from Mr McTaggart but he was welcomed by Mr Appleby as an "esteemed guest".
