As a united voice, we write this letter to outline the need for a new single site hospital for Albury Wodonga.

We cannot continue to sit by and watch patients and families suffer as this region is forced to make do with two out-dated and undersized hospitals.

On a daily basis staff at Albury Wodonga Health remain under severe pressure to maintain the safety of our vast community.

Our ability to provide safe care for you and your family has been hampered by trying to operate two small hospitals merely seven kilometres apart.

Patients are shuttled between hospital campuses at all hours in order to get the treatment they need.

This is often when they are severely unwell and are at risk of deteriorating without timely treatment.

Our staff do a wonderful job to make the situation as safe as possible: ambulance services are stretched, moving patients between the two hospitals when they are needed for people elsewhere; doctors are torn between the campuses, trying to prioritise where they are needed most, and leaving others behind; nurses are left caring for our patients whilst waiting for the specialist support that is required.

In the middle of it all are the people who matter most: our patients.

Albury Wodonga Health's infrastructure has lagged behind other regional centres, limiting the ability to develop new capabilities and to recruit specialists who can provide care for you and your family closer to home.

IN OTHER NEWS:

We are advocating for the creation of a hospital with the size and capabilities that can provide high-end specialist care locally, a regional solution for regional people: minimizing the need to fly doctors in, and patients out.

We are grateful that Albury Wodonga Health has consulted with clinicians and taken heed of our concerns, and we fully support the aim of the Albury Wodonga Health Clinical Services Plan to create a new single site hospital.

In writing this, we understand that there remain some members of our community who have an attachment to a hospital on their side of the border.

As doctors, we remain committed to advocating for what we believe is best for patient safety and for delivering high-level care to this region.

The complexity of modern medical services and equipment prevents world-class treatment being delivered in small ageing hospitals like ours.

The reality is that we need a completely new hospital- either at a current site or a new one. Creating one state-of-the-art facility will provide the best possible care for our growing population, regardless of where it is built.

We remain committed to working with Albury Wodonga Health to form its Masterplan.

This is a vital piece of work that will determine how all the parts that make up our hospitals can fit together on one site, whilst allowing the capacity to grow as our population expands.

What we ask from you is your support: to join us in advocating for a single Hospital that will meet the ongoing needs of our region.

Our community should have a hospital that provides 21st century facilities.

We cannot accept second best.

We need to build the health service that you deserve for the future.

Executive Committee of the Border Medical Association: Barbara Robertson, Phillip Steele, Christopher Steer, David Clancy, Kate Drummond, Stuart Heslop, Andrew Kong, Lachlan McKeeman, Annabel Martin, Tracey Merriman, Robert Smith, Michael Stone.

You can submit a letter to the editor by sending an email to letters@bordermail.com.au. Your letter must contain your full name (for publication), as well as an address and contact phone number (not for publication).