Wodonga mayor Ron Mildren irked at continued Victorian hospital snub

Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas visited Wangaratta's public hospital last Thursday March 16 to open a new medical ward.

It follows no reply to a letter to Premier Daniel Andrews in December, on the hospital, and the council passing a motion seeking a meeting with Ms Thomas.

Cr Mildren said on Tuesday March 21 the lack of a response was "very disappointing".

"And I find it a little more disappointing, given that we had the minister in Wangaratta last week," he said.

"It would have been an opportunity there for us to take that up and have a side conversation.

"We would have been quite happy to travel to Wangaratta to meet the minister, but we weren't advised that the minister was going to be here, so we didn't get the opportunity."

Ms Thomas' office responded by calling for Cr Mildren to support the $558 million upgrade of Albury hospital.

"The major redevelopment and expansion at Albury-Wodonga is supported by the Victorian government, NSW government, board of AWH, Albury Council and local clinicians because it will meet the needs of the community now and into the future - we encourage the mayor of Wodonga to back this project," a government spokesperson said.

"This new single-site hospital will ensure the community continues to get the best possible care - featuring a bigger emergency department, more operating theatres as well as more ICU capacity."

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Meanwhile, Cr Mildren said a Labor victory in the NSW election on Saturday would give the council a "window of opportunity" to push its cause for a greenfields hospital, given the NSW Opposition has committed to a review on the planned $558 million upgrade of Albury hospital.

"It gives us an opportunity to go and present the facts as we see them, to present our advocacy position and to express the need for the things that this community desires and deserves," Cr Mildren said.

Albury Labor candidate Marcus Rowland said if his party won office in NSW its review of the hospital decision would involve meeting Wodonga Council.

"We want to meet with stakeholders, we want to meet with them individually and as a cohort," he said.

"We want to meet with Albury City Council, we want to meet with Wodonga City Council because we cannot forget our Victorian counterparts in this discussion.

"We want to meet with Border Better Health and Border Medical Association, then we want to have town hall meetings, we want people to have a say."

Mr Rowland suggested a review may run for a "couple of months" before expressing uncertainty about that timeframe.

On Monday night, Wodonga Council passed a resolution calling for expressions of interest from the community on the hospital matter.

Cr Mildren said he wanted to hear from those with stories about the health system and what they believe the community needs.

He said the council may do economic modelling to show health care needs.

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