Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I will never stop fighting for better health care for my electorate of Indi, including for a new single-site hospital on the border. The Albury-Wodonga region is growing fast, and our current two-hospital situation is not meeting our needs. In recent weeks, elective surgeries have been cancelled once again due to capacity issues. Last year, the New South Wales and Victorian governments finally announced a new single-site hospital on the existing Albury hospital site, and I welcomed the announcement at the time. But the master plan was released yesterday by the two state governments, and it is grossly inadequate. The supposed master plan is just a series of pictures, four paragraphs and nine dot points; 11 months and $2 million later, that's all we get. Nothing on how many extra beds, nothing on how many extra theatres or car parks and no detail on exactly how it will meet the acute healthcare needs of our community in the decades to come.

Once again, it feels like we've been let down by the New South Wales and Victorian governments; we're too far from Sydney or Melbourne for them to understand or care about the true health needs of our communities. Our community deserves world-class health care close to home. We deserve detail, transparency and genuine consultation. Without that, we are left to assume that we are being sold a lemon.

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