Specialists in children's medical care are having to choose between emergencies and Albury surgeons don't have enough theatres to clear waiting lists.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Pathologists who help diagnose cancer patients have to get specimens couriered to their West Albury lab because they don't have one big enough at Albury Base.
These aren't new revelations about the impacts of splitting clinical care across two hospitals - they were confirmed by a clinical services plan that Albury Wodonga Health released in 2021.
But medicos desperate to get a new Albury-Wodonga hospital funded and built have brought personal anecdotes to the "significant risks to patient safety" confirmed by the health service's own CSP.
Without enough theatres to operate, all general surgeon Daniel Chubb can do is direct his patients to write to their local member.
"It's not a missing number of surgeons, it's a missing hospital," he said.
"I can re-categorise people to try and get them done more urgently, but that's at the expense of someone else.
"I get emails every week from patients wondering when their case that was booked more than six or 12 months ago is going to be done.
"We simply need a larger hospital; preferably on a single site and I don't really mind which side of the river that is."
Federation Clinic's Lachlan McKeeman is among the general practitioners with close ties to the health service and said it "really is that stretched", adding the new ED would be "a stopgap measure".
"I've been here nearly nine years and it was stretched then," he told The Border Mail.
"I work in obstetrics and if there's a paediatric emergency in Albury and a paediatric emergency in Wodonga after hours, there's always the question (from clinicians) of 'Do you need me right now?'"
"GP patients are coming back from ED and they haven't received all of the care needed because there's just not the beds.
"Patients report that it's frightening ... you've got patients in the community that avoid going there, because they know how pressured the service is.
"We're trying to reassure the community that we still need them to present and to seek the care they need."
Border Medical Association chair Barb Robertson said clinicians were managing significant risk every day.
"We have patients who are critically unwell on the Wodonga side who we need to move back to the Albury side, and often we have no space to put them in," she said.
"We need one hospital, a brand new hospital that's got everything that we deserve as a community.
"All of us are really frustrated (that we're still fighting).
"We are doing our best and all the staff are doing their best (but) there are areas of the hospital that are pretty desperate."
It is not just acute care that is disadvantaged by the old infrastructure and dual campuses - which once did their job but cannot keep up with the growing population and medical improvements.
Unlike places like Ballarat, which is getting a new $541.6 million hospital, on-site histopathology services are limited.
Kim Cheah is pathologist in charge at Dorevitch Pathology and works in the specialist lab, which mostly diagnoses cancers.
"We are able to do it on site currently, but with the space constraints and staffing fluctuations as a result of COVID, everyone is suffering and that's really highlighted how vulnerable workflow is, having a service across multiple sites," he said.
"Having a single-site hospital with histopathology on site would mean that we wouldn't have to encounter a lot of the logistical challenges that we currently face."
Histopathology would typically be situated next to operating theatres so surgeons can work with pathologists on-the-spot.
IN OTHER NEWS:
But if Dr Cheah or his colleagues can't fit in the lab, and depending on the case, specimens have to be couriered from Albury Base to Dorevitch labs in West Albury.
"If there's anything that we have concerns about, the surgeons will draw us a diagram or give us a call, and we rely heavily on photographs," he said.
"But it definitely doesn't replace having both of those people being on site to look at it on the spot.
"Having a single-site hospital will most certainly help give the pathology service the opportunity to grow with the size and sophistication of the rest of the health service."
Indi MP Helen Haines, who brought about 20 health professionals together, said workforce and COVID remained an issue but it was the infrastructure that was most critical.
"The population is going to grow by 30 per cent within 15 years, but already we have intensive care nurses who have to stash equipment under beds," she said.
"We have midwives who have to contemplate working with elderly people as well as new mothers and babies because we don't have room in our wards.
"We've got a pain specialist here, who tells me about the long waiting list as she tries to juggle going from one side of the border to the other to provide pain services to people with chronic pain."
Dr Haines said the NSW, Victorian and Commonwealth governments had to urgently progress a new "world-class hospital" for Albury-Wodonga.
"A couple of weeks ago, I was in the parliament and I asked the question of the Treasurer ... 'Will you fund a brand new world class hospital on the border? Will you work with both state governments and give $300 million to achieve what we desperately need?" she said.
"The treasurer said he would look at any proposal on its merit.
"Well, look at the merit behind me"