And the sad fact is that neither are at the forefront when it comes to the views of those who should be doing their best to deliver a solution.

At a time when the wider community is calling for a cross-border hospital, one that truly fits the needs of residents now and decades into the future, politicians who should know better are doing their utmost to play the blame game.

It is not only clear that the current two-campus system in place - with a hospital in each of Albury and Wodonga, and the logistical and planning nightmares this in turn creates - has become a basket case.

NSW and Victoria's governments will each point the finger at each other, as that is an all-too easy way to try to shift attention away from their own litany of shortcomings.

Just how any progress can then be made on such a vitally important, substantial investment as a new public hospital in such an environment is beyond belief.

It is into this void that the Commonwealth should step, but instead the murmurings we get served up to us are more of the same, lame "don't blame us" variety.

Farrer MP Sussan Ley, who has herself acknowledged a new hospital is required, has now stepped into the fray with comments about who should actually run Albury Wodonga Health.

But instead of taking the constructive approach of helping find a way forward, she suggested we go back to the good old days of NSW running the whole show.

Her "personal view" was that the two-state approach "is not working" and should be abandoned. This is just a bit too cute - the platform from which she made this view known was as the paid elected representative of the people of Farrer.

Rather than seeking to divide the room any further, it would have been better for her to look into why the Border has failed to attract proper funding. She needs to help bring the states together, not push them apart. As it is, Albury Wodonga Health has suffered from a catastrophic lack of planning for a decade, and without intervention that will continue for a decade more.

Division is the death-knell in the provision of effective public health.