Ron Mildren said the letter, from the health service's chief executive Bill Appleby and chair Jonathan Green, that emerged publicly after a request by NSW MP Amanda Cohn was "meaningful in so many different ways".

"The two professional people that wrote that letter must have known that that letter was accessible through freedom of information and I read that letter as being a cry for help from the rest of us to try to get the health service back on track," Cr Mildren said.

"I read that letter as them saying to us 'we cannot get or deliver what this community needs and deserves with the funding and the process that is in place'."

Messrs Appleby and Green told the NSW and Victorian health ministers last December that "the likely reality that our city will need to continue to endure a split acute/sub-acute hospital configuration despite the generous contributions of the Victorian and NSW governments is grossly disappointing and for the board and executive leadership of AWH".

Cr Mildren's observation was made at Wodonga's council meeting on Monday March 18, where a lengthy motion was passed in relation to hospital advocacy following the city's March 1 health summit.

It includes a plan to set up an advocacy committee involving representatives from regional councils, the Border Medical Association, National Rural Health Alliance and other relevant figures who would join the Wodonga mayor in the group.

The council also publicly thanked health workers and plans to put that gratitude in writing in a letter to The Border Mail, Mr Appleby and the medical association.

Ten other particular riders were adopted.

They include making representation to the national cabinet and advocating for an agreement between the federal, NSW and Victorian governments to "create a fully cross border regional health service which makes the Murray River border invisible".

Cr Mildren said the council needed to continue to be steadfast and methodical in its pursuit of a new single-site Twin Cities hospital.

"This is not about a quick fix, this is about the long term health service planning and delivery for the whole of our region," he said.

Councillor Danny Chamberlain applauded the efforts of Dr Cohn in exposing material about the hospital approach taken by the states.

"Almost everything that Amanda Cohn has been able to get has proven that what we were afraid is exactly what's happening," Cr Chamberlain said.

"That is, that it is a Band-Aid measure, we're building to a budget not to needs and we will end up, if it goes ahead in its current form, hard-working staff working in conditions that are not appropriate for reasonable health care."

Former mayor Kev Poulton apologised to the community that councils "haven't been stronger and more united on this".

He said Wodonga councillors knew that were right in fighting for a new hospital.

"How good is it when you go out there on a whim and...you fight damn hard, you just have that gut feeling that it doesn't feel right and you win it," Cr Poulton said.

"There's only one thing better than that and that's when someone goes on wrong and says 'I was wrong', that's what I haven't seen yet, that's what I hope I see, particularly from elected representatives."