That's the major concern of former member Tim Farrah, who has called on the board to do what it was supposed to and agitate on behalf of the community.

But Mr Farrah, who spent nine years on the board before resigning last year, said it might already be too late.

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"The fact that the Albury Wodonga Health board has written one letter to the editor of The Border Mail and that is the extent of their lobbying to date is an insult to the community," Mr Farrah said.

That letter, from chair Matt Burke, spoke of how Albury Wodonga Health was "seeking support and funding to address a range of immediate and long-term challenges".

Mr Farrah said it was abundantly clear also that the Victorian government simply had no interest in providing the funding support required to make Albury Wodonga Health operate as it should.

"That's the worry," he said.

"It's not five minutes to midnight, it is midnight, and something needs to happen now.

"Otherwise I can understand why NSW will have to act on their duty of care to their taxpayers and go it alone."

Farrer MP Sussan Ley recently said she favoured dismantling Albury Wodonga Health, on the basis it was "not working".

Albury MP and fellow Liberal Justin Clancy, on the same issue, earlier flagged whether NSW should take over the operations of Albury Wodonga Health. That included whether NSW "needs to go its own way".

Mr Clancy would not be drawn when questioned by The Border Mail on whether the board was in any way remiss in how it went about running Albury Wodonga Health.

Nevertheless, he suggested the responsibility for the cross-border health service achieving what it needed to for Border residents lay with its members.

"What's got to be paramount is that we are seeking the right health outcomes for our community," Mr Clancy said.

"As the member for Albury, I absolutely recognise that Albury-Wodonga is one community.

"But I also recognise that I want to make sure our Albury residents aren't disadvantaged in any way."

Mr Clancy said he would continue to push the board to argue the health service's case to government.

"In my conversations with the board I've certainly encouraged them to be advocating and will continue to do that," he said.

"At the end of the day, with concerns raised that Albury Wodonga Health is in crisis then there's an imperative for the board (to act on) that."

Mr Burke wrote of how the board was committed to a new single Albury-Wodonga hospital and that it continued to work with the Victorian, NSW and Commonwealth governments "to progress that vision".

The reality though, Mr Farrah said, was far different.

He said the Victorian public health model where a board oversaw an area's needs was "terrific" as it meant health services "especially regional ones aren't citycentric in terms of their mindset".

That was both in terms of governing the operations of such a health service and addressing a community's future needs.

"But unfortunately at the moment we have a board that is just missing in action," he said.

Mr Farrah was full of praise for the NSW government's strong support for Albury Wodonga Health, including funding the creation of the "integral" hospital master plan.

"They couldn't get Victoria to come to the party; thank goodness NSW said 'that's OK, we'll pay for the whole thing', which is great."

Mr Farrah said the community had acted on the single-hospital cause - doctors had spoken up, people had rallied on the Lincoln Causeway - whereas "the board is silent".

"The lead times are so long between getting approval and funding announced to when you open," he said.

"It took 10 years from the government announcing the funding for a billion dollars to build the Bendigo hospital before that hospital opened its doors."

Putting pressure on the Victorian government was so vital, he said, because there were "so many signals ... that they are not invested in this model at all".

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