Albury Wodonga Health patients will have more access to cardiologists and other specialists as an Andrews government 2018 election commitment comes to fruition.
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Details of the pledge to deliver 500,000 more specialist appointments in regional communities over four years were discussed in parliament by Health Minister Jenny Mikakos last week.
The Border Mail has confirmed AWH will receive $1.4 million this financial year to deliver an additional 6150 appointments, with no out of pocket expenses to patients.
They will cover a broad range of clinical specialities including maternity, endocrinology, cardiology, general medicine, geriatrics, paediatrics, psychiatry and addiction medicine.
More funding will flow through over the coming three years.
Northeast Health Wangaratta will receive $326,778 this financial year for at least 2000 specialist appointments for conditions including cancer, diabetes, arthritis, and speech pathology.
To announce the roll-out, Ms Mikakos recently visited Bendigo Health, which will receive funding for 15,000 additional appointments.
"Bendigo Health are in the process of recruiting an additional 20 staff," she told the parliament last week.
"Barwon Health will be delivering an additional 15,000 appointments, Ballarat Health will deliver an additional 13,000 appointments, Albury Wodonga an additional 6000 appointments and Goulburn Valley Health an additional 14,000 appointments.
"The last thing patients need when they're battling illness is long, costly and inconvenient trips to Melbourne or being stung with private specialist fees to get the treatment they need. We're fixing that."
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The $136 million initiative was billed as having the potential to save patients thousands of dollars with "private specialist appointments costing between $175 and $565".
At the time of the budget's release, the government was criticised by former candidate Jacqui Hawkins.
"Albury Wodonga Health has over 60,000 presentations, and one of the busiest maternity units, but gets a fraction of the funding in comparison to Ballarat or Bendigo," she said.
