Better Border Health

Albury Wodonga and Region

Advocating for a fit for purpose, future-proofed hospital, to service the people of Albury-Wodonga and surrounds.

Tickets now available for the Better Border Health Candidate Forum for the Farrer by-election

5.30 pm – 7.30 pm

Wednesday 22 April, 2026

Commercial Club, Townsend Room (Level 1)

Stop the Spin! Publish the real number of extra acute beds

13 April 2026

Albury Wodonga Health (AWH) and Health Infrastructure NSW (HI) continue to promote an “uplift of 110 beds” as part of the hospital redevelopment.

In July 2025, AWH Chair Jonathon Green and CEO Bill Appleby issued a “Setting the Record Straight” media release stating that “the current project scope is forecast to deliver an uplift of 110 beds”.

To most people, that sounds like relief is on the way. But our community is sick of headlines and half-truths.

We want one plain answer:

How many extra acute inpatient beds will we actually get, net, once all closures and removals are counted?

Why acute inpatient beds matter

An acute inpatient bed is a hospital bed for someone who is seriously unwell or injured and needs to be admitted for urgent treatment and close monitoring, often coming from the Emergency Department. These are the beds used for strokes, heart attacks, pneumonia, serious infections, major injuries, and care after surgery.

When acute inpatient beds are short, everything jams up:

ED fills and people wait far too long
Ambulances can’t offload
Planned surgery is delayed
Staff are forced to use “overflow” areas not designed for patient care

The reality right now

AWH is operating at 110 to 125 per cent capacity, even though safe-care guidelines recommend no more than 85 per cent.

Daily bed deficits are now frequently between 40 and 70, based only on expected intake, and not counting those who give up, travel elsewhere, or have surgery delayed.

And the deficit isn’t standing still. It is growing year on year because we live in one of the fastest-growing regions in Australia.

What Justice Beasley said: spend based on need, or it’s wasted

The NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into Healthcare Funding, led by Justice Richard Beasley, warned that health infrastructure spending must be based on what the community needs, not “the money said to be available”.

He also found there was little evidence the proposed Albury Hospital redevelopment was based on the kind of proper analysis needed to match a growing catchment’s health needs.

In plain English: if you spend hundreds of millions without properly planning for current and future demand, that is how you end up wasting money.

How “110 beds” becomes a much smaller number of extra acute beds

This is the part our community deserves explained clearly.

The “110 beds” headline includes beds that are not acute inpatient ward beds, and it ignores beds that will be lost when services shift and temporary overflow areas are shut down.

So, to estimate the real net gain in acute inpatient beds, we do a simple what’s added minus what’s taken away.

Start with the headline

110 beds (promoted uplift)

Subtract beds that are not extra acute inpatient ward beds

Minus 14 Emergency Department beds (ED beds are not inpatient ward beds)
Minus 8 mental health beds increase (important, but not extra acute medical/surgical beds)
Minus 2 dialysis chairs replacing 2 beds in Ward 2 (a swap, chairs replacing beds is not a bed increase)

Subtract beds that won’t be available to acute inpatients

Minus 9 cancer centre beds currently used by AWH.

AWH has confirmed these beds will return to support the growing number of patients requiring cancer services. Dr Brett Hamilton, Clinical Director of Cancer Services, AWH, has confirmed that conjecture about retaining these beds is unfounded.

Minus a further 10 temporary overflow beds currently commissioned in areas such as former tea rooms and transit lounges, to be decommissioned when the new tower opens.

Proof that Albury Wodonga is shortchanged in regional hospital capital funding

1 April 2026

A new analysis (see following) by Better Border Health highlights a significant inequity in regional hospital capital investment affecting Albury Wodonga

Using the latest available Local Government Area population basis, our analysis shows that Albury–Wodonga’s combined hospital commitment of $558 million equates to approximately $5,410 per resident. This sits materially below a number of comparator regional hospital projects, including Toowoomba ($7,051 per resident), Tweed Valley ($7,248), Eurobodalla ($8,021), Griffith ($9,144), Shellharbour ($9,563), Warrnambool ($10,957) and Bundaberg ($11,305).

In Better Border Health’s view, this gap is even more concerning when considered in context. Several comparator centres, including Toowoomba, Tweed Valley and Shellharbour, are substantially closer to major metropolitan and tertiary hospital networks than Albury Wodonga. By contrast, Albury Wodonga is a major inland regional community that must be significantly more self-reliant while also serving a large cross-border and regional population.

This analysis therefore reinforces what our community experiences on a daily basis: the inequity is not limited to capital funding alone. It is also reflected in the broader pressures facing our health service, including recurrent funding constraints, bed shortages, the absence of 24/7 heart attack coverage, limited operating theatre capacity and insufficient dialysis chairs when compared with other regional centres.

Taken together, these issues point to a health system that is being asked to do more with less.

If governments are serious about improving regional healthcare and easing pressure on metropolitan hospitals, then investment decisions must better reflect the realities faced by large self-reliant regional centres such as Albury Wodonga.

This issue now requires strong and united advocacy. All local politicians, state and federal, on both sides of the border, should stand up for Albury Wodonga and secure the level of hospital investment this region needs and deserves.