She said a state-of-the-art hospital should be the No.1 priority of the Albury-Wodonga Regional Deal, which the federal government was a significant player in.

"I see the regional deal as holding the opportunities for federal contributions to the future model for public health and private health in Albury-Wodonga," Ms Ley said.

"The Commonwealth doesn't build greenfield site hospitals or even upgrade existing ones but I'm fighting for funding to make our hospital services unique, have the highest standard of excellence when it comes to rural health.

"And we do need NSW and Victoria to come to the party with their contributions.

"My focus is through our regional deal, how we take existing services to a new level, something we haven't had before, not just put back in buildings, or just make them bigger to cater for more patients, but take everything to another level, so that our specialist services, high quality training and our research and our cancer research and treatment is all done here, in a way that we've never seen before."

A joint venture between Albury and Wodonga to build a major tourist park to be funded under the regional deal bombed this week

IN OTHER NEWS

Meanwhile, Albury Wodonga Health chairman Matt Burke has repeated it's not considering a "mega-merger" even though former director Tim Farrah cited the lack of disclosure of such as move as the reason for him to stand aside.

The board met this week for the first time since Mr Farrah handed in his resignation to the Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley.

The process to replace Mr Farrah on the board has started with the Victorian health department managing the process.

"The Albury Wodonga Health board has a focus on the health needs of our catchment community and remains committed to the delivery of a cross-border health service," Mr Burke said in a statement.

"We will continue to work closely with surrounding health services in both NSW and Victoria border regions to deliver better health outcomes for our communities.

"We have recently completed our clinical services plan and are about to commence our master planning process.

"The clinical services plan takes a long term view, and identifies the services we need to provide for the Albury-Wodonga and border communities in line with forecast population growth and community profile over the next 20 years."

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