The upgraded Albury hospital will have a 50 per cent increase in bed numbers, the NSW Health Minister has told a parliamentary hearing.
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Ryan Park outlined how many beds will be in the revamped hospital as part of a budget estimates session where he faced questions from Albury-based Greens Upper House MP Amanda Cohn.
"Based on current planning, once fully operationalised the new hospital complete will have around 380 beds and this is around about a 50 per cent increase from the 2019 bed base of 245," Mr Park said.
"It's hard to make sense of that because Albury Wodonga Health itself boasts there are 337 beds across two campuses and the promise made us when the two premiers came to us was that we would have a single-site campus," spokeswoman Michelle Cowan said.
She and Dr Cohn also raised the issue of Albury hospital already having a daily deficit of 60 beds and how that figure fitted with Mr Park's outline.
"I'm not quite sure how the minister comes up with his estimate of a 50 per cent increase," Ms Cowan said.
"I think his maths need checking."
After Dr Cohn questioned Mr Park about a stalled upgrade of the Manning Base Hospital and the possibility of delays with the Albury project, the minister struck an upbeat tone.
"What I can tell you is we are not pulling back on Albury, in terms of the budget that we've allocated, it's 558 (million dollars), we're going to work through that with our friends in Victoria," Mr Park said.
"It's a significant investment, I've engaged with the local member Mr (Justin) Clancy on this issue, I've kept him abreast of what is happening.
"I acknowledge....that not every person in that community agrees with what we are doing and what the previous government announced, but we believe that that is going to significantly uplift health services."
The Wollongong-based MP implied there was a lack of gratitude for the spending on Albury hospital.
"If my community was informed they were getting half a billion dollars in a hospital they would be quite pleased," Mr Park told Dr Cohn.
"I understand that is not your view ."
Dr Cohn, who like Better Border Health wants an entirely new hospital to service Albury-Wodonga, flagged her resolve in a preface to questions.
Ms Cowan said the attitude intimated by Mr Park that Albury-Wodonga should be satisfied with $558 million failed to take into account a lack of detail about the hospital works.
"We would be thankful if there was evidence it would meet our health needs and the evidence is simply not there," Ms Cowan said, adding the bed number situation reinforced the need for the business case for the project to be made public.
Meanwhile, Mr Park said he would take on notice feedback raised by Dr Cohn in relation to service provision in a $25 million upgrade of the Finley hospital.
"The local community are concerned that essential facilities such as a rehab unit, mental health and renal health (are omitted and), it is an opportunity missed to include those," Dr Cohn said.
Mr Park said he would examine the specific budget and praised the "very, very hard" work of volunteers at the hospital which he visited in 2023.
