A plan to introduce dialysis treatment chairs at Albury hospital earmarked in the 2021 Albury Wodonga Health master plan appears to have been scuttled, Border health advocates say.
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A lack of dialysis facilities on the Border was highlighted last week when a top North East renal doctor revealed many Albury-Wodonga kidney patients were forced to get dialysis treatment at Wangaratta and Melbourne.
Russell Auwardt, a private nephrologist who refers patients to receive the vital treatment, said dialysis facilities at Wodonga - there are none at Albury hospital - haven't improved since 2012.
Health advocates have expressed dismay that plans to improve treatment for kidney patients in Albury-Wodonga appear to have been shelved since the joint NSW-Victoria announcement in 2022 of a redevelopment of Albury hospital rather than a new hospital on a greenfield site.
Dialysis 'proposed for Albury'
The 2021 Albury Wodonga Health master plan under the heading "Acute services upgrade", stated: "In order to become a significant rural regional health service, dialysis is proposed to be accommodated at Albury Base Hospital, as it is currently only located at the Wodonga campus, which limits inpatients at Albury requiring concurrent dialysis treatment.
"The project scope seeks to relocate existing dialysis chairs and build a total of 27 chairs with acute and community patients at Albury campus."
Better Border Health's Michelle Cowan said dialysis bed shortfalls on the Border "should be ringing alarm bells about the future of health services in our region".
"The 2021 clinical services plan and master plan indicated that our region would need 27 beds for dialysis by 2040, but current plans have scaled this back to 17 (according to the current clinical services plan)," Ms Cowan said.
The current plan states the targets are "subject to affordability within the project budget".
Beds 'on the chopping block'
"The proposed dialysis beds might be on the chopping block with many other cuts being made to Albury hospital revamp to fit the budget," Ms Cowan said.
Ms Cowan said the Victorian Health department last week saying it had earmarked $250,000 in funding to expand dialysis capacity in the region raised questions about other funding for acute services being spread across Albury and Wodonga campuses.
"Clinicians have warned that surgical services, ED, ICU, and dialysis patients are placed at risk by the split services and should be co-located," Ms Cowan said.
"Currently, there is so little information that we can genuinely rely on - and that in itself is telling.
"Better Border Health will continue to call for a stop to the short-sighted, wasteful redevelopment, and return to the drawing board with the 2021 clinical services plan. No one wants a costly patch-up.
"We wrote to the health ministers in April. In the meantime, our hospital urgently needs funds for portable wards, and bed shortage relief now."
2021 plan 'not approved'
Albury Wodonga Health referred Border Mail queries to NSW Health Infrastructure and the Health Department.
NSW Health Infrastructure said the 2021 masterplan process did not fully consider matters relating to detailed cost, value for money and affordability.
A spokesperson said planning for the Albury campus was undertaken by Albury Wodonga Health with that master plan but it was not approved by government and did not progress to feasibility.
"The project scope and 2023 master plan report are informed by the planning recommendations of the Albury Wodonga Health Clinical Services Plan 2022, which outlines the services and future capacity that may be needed to support healthcare delivery in the future." the spokesperson said.
"The information on the clinical services outlined in the 2023 master plan report, including bed numbers, is indicative only at this early stage of planning.
"The final project scope for Albury Wodonga Regional Hospital project will be determined through the planning and design process as it progresses."
