The Victorian government says there will not be changes made to the Albury-Wodonga hospital redevelopment plan, despite renewed advocacy for a single-site hospital on an entirely new site.

A Victorian government spokesperson said the major redevelopment and expansion of the hospital's Albury campus was well supported and that the local council should get on board.  

"We encourage the Mayor of Wodonga to back this project," the spokesperson said.

The government said the decision to deliver the project in its current form — which features a bigger emergency department, more operating theatres and more ICU capacity — has been made by both the Victorian and NSW governments and will not be changed.

It comes as Wodonga City Council has invited 16 other regional councils to join in its fight for a new hospital on the Victorian and New South Wales border.

Wodonga's Mayor Ron Mildren still believes it's not too late for a purpose-built healthcare facility, despite both state governments committing $558 million last October for redeveloping Albury Wodonga Health's (AWH) Albury site.

Brownfield site possibly unsuitable 

An eight-part motion was moved at the council's meeting on Monday night to continue advocating for a new hospital.

The motion carried unanimously and included the pursuit of freedom of information requests to access documents relating to the site's redevelopment, and making a formal request to the Victorian Minister for Health to clarify issues.

Wodonga councillors say without relevant documents and transparency, they're unsure if a brownfield site is suitable.

The council is now inviting other councils in the hospital's catchment to join its campaign, including Albury City, Alpine Shire, Benalla Rural City, Berrigan Shire, Edward River, Federation, Greater Hume, Indigo, Lockhart, Mansfield, Moira, Murray River, Murrumbidgee, Snowy Valley, Towong, Wangaratta Rural City.

Cr Mildren says the council will now engage with the other councils and is hopeful it will have an impact. 

"[I don't] think for a moment that the project is locked down [as] tight as what the two sides of government in each state are saying," he said.

"If we've got a significant support from a number of other councils within this region, coming in and saying similar things and expressing similar concerns, then the state governments will just have to listen."

Cr Mildren says the council has been seeking a meeting with the Victorian Health Minister since late 2022, and is yet to receive any response.

"Perhaps we've been a little bit course in the way that we've confronted government," he said.

"I think the politics has probably been a bit abrupt."

'Political expediency' prioritised 

Cr Mildren said community health had not been prioritised.

"Political expediency has been the order of the day," he said.

"The whole project has been put together between two governments going to elections."

The Victorian state election took place a month after the redevelopment announcement and when NSW residents headed to the ballot box in March Dominic Perrottet's liberal government was replaced with Labor.

Cr Mildren says the redevelopment of Albury's hospital is "absolutely reliant on future stage funding".

"If the decision is made to continue down the path that we're going down, we run the really big risk of having under-capacity services — potentially less than what we've got right now," he said. 

'Doesn't exist in a vacuum'

Di Thomas from the advocacy group Better Border Health commends the council's decision to engage with neighbouring councils. 

"If something happens with a new hospital or a new health service …  it's relevant to these outlying areas because patients are referred to our region as the acute care centre," she said. 

Ms Thomas said the respective state governments need to consider the concerns and questions of the councils within the larger region.

"We know that Albury-Wodonga doesn't exist in a vacuum," she said.

"We know that we have a wider community of interest outside just our two city boundaries."