It's been 12 years since the merger of Albury-Wodonga's health services.
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It was a momentous occasion marked on the front page of this publication on July 1, 2009 with a birth notice to celebrate the arrival. This read, in part: "20 years after conception, and following a complicated pregnancy and difficult delivery, the Border is thrilled to announce the overdue arrival of Albury Wodonga Health at 12.01 this morning."
Our baby is on the cusp of being a teenager now, and its needs have vastly changed.
The first cross-border health service in Australia needs a new hospital, one that is fit for purpose, and able to sustain the growth of our community.
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It needs long-term solutions that recognise and address the ever-growing demand on the health service and its dedicated employees, not Band-Aid fixes that take so long to roll out that by the time the Band-Aid is on, the wound needs surgery.
The campaign for a new hospital ultimately will succeed or fail on the support of our community. You are the people who must demand more. You are the people who deserve a health service that is fit for the needs of your growing community. The dedicated people who work tirelessly in our hospitals to care for our communities need your support. You are the people who must demand a better deal for our health service because without you, it won't happen.
Unlike the people of Wagga and Bendigo, our community has not seen the hundreds of millions of dollars in funding that have flowed to those health services. The investment needed in your health service simply has not kept up with demand.
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Where a new hospital might be located is not the question. A completely new site might be the answer. We can't let the issue of "where" be a stumbling block, and we can't let it get in the way of better health care for our vast region. We need a state-of-the-art, new hospital, positioned to attract and retain the best health practitioners in regional Australia. What we need has to be the focus right now, rather than where we might want it to be.
A new hospital is indeed a big ask; in all likelihood, it could be a billion-dollar ask. But it's not something we don't deserve. More importantly, it's something our community needs. We have every right to ask for what we need. Our people should not have to go to metropolitan hospitals for procedures that people in other regional areas can access at a local level. Why are we being left behind?
