MP says Victorian government ignoring Albury hospital bed request

The member for Farrer made the claim on Tuesday April 24, 2023, saying a bed shortage at the hospital is linked to the Victorian management of Albury Wodonga Health.

"The current bed shortage at Albury hospital needs to sit squarely at the feet of the Victorian government," Ms Ley said.

"They are responsible for Albury Wodonga Health and have already stuffed us around on proper planning for the hospital's upgrade.

"Now their health officials are faffing about on a simple request for 30 temporary beds to cover situations like this.

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"A request which was apparently made 10 months ago.

"It is completely unacceptable for a hospital in a major regional centre like ours to have people waiting 12-24 hours for a bed or being sent home.

"Victoria needs to start being accountable for what's going on in Albury or give the job of running the hospital back to NSW."

In reply, a Victorian Labor government spokesman failed to address the 30-bed request, instead attacking Ms Ley's record which includes being health minister in a previous Coalition federal government.

"We won't be lectured by Sussan Ley, who served as Health Minister under the Abbott Government which delivered the biggest cut to public health in Australia's history," he said.

"Unlike Ms Ley, who sat in cabinet for nine years and didn't deliver a single thing for AWH, we're partnering with NSW to deliver a new single-site hospital, featuring a bigger emergency department, more operating theatres as well as more ICU capacity."

Albury Wodonga Health last week warned patients via social media that it was experiencing high demand for its emergency departments at both of its hospitals.

It has previously had a number of code yellow situations over the past 18 months due to stretched resources with staff and beds.

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