Federal, states meeting brings no hope for new Border region hospital

"They met in Canberra - there is a picture of them all on Mark Butler's Facebook page - and if it (the Border health crisis) didn't come up as a discussion point, then there's something seriously wrong," Ms Thomas said.

Albury MP Justin Clancy said on Saturday he welcomed debate about a new hospital for the Border region after his colleague NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard declined to confirm government support for the need.

Member for Farrer Sussan Ley also welcomed cooperation, while many Border health heavyweights vented their fury at the NSW and Victorian governments' perceived "lack of interest", one saying the "abandonment" of Albury Wodonga Health was "soul destroying".

Mr Clancy was responding to a report in Saturday's Border Mail highlighting Mr Hazzard shying away from a question posed by NSW Opposition health spokesman Ryan Park over whether the state government supported a new hospital.

"I welcome the article - there should be no doubt as to the advocacy required in bringing the two state governments together," Mr Clancy said. "The most effective advocacy comes from being in the room and engaging around the table."

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Ms Ley said the AWH board needed to urgently outline where their master plan was up to.

"I still don't believe we've seen that occur," Ms Ley said. "No government can commit fully to new hospital funding until we see the final plan," she said.

Ms Thomas said there might be hope for a new hospital given the change in government, but wasn't holding her breath.

"We are hoping that Mark Butler is the conduit through which we can get everyone around the table to discuss how a new hospital can happen," she said. "I don't want to call the feds out as the saviours - but we're hoping that the change in government can bring some hope."

Professor Craig Underhill, who is Albury Wodonga Health's director of cancer services, said the case for a new single site hospital was "overwhelming". Renal clinician David Rutherford said the long-running tussle was "soul destroying".

"While every other health service at least gets heard, AWH has been utterly abandoned," he said. "No government wants to hear from us ... soul destroying."

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