Towong Shire Council is calling on the community to rally  in Corryong next month to oppose the planned redevelopment of the current Albury hospital instead of building on a new greenfield site.
“Council remains gravely concerned at the current plans to redevelop the existing hospital site as it will lead to insufficient capacity to meet the demands of the region for the future,” said Towong mayor, Cr Andrew Whitehead.
“From all the information that we have had access to, it is quite clear that there are major capacity shortfalls at the hospital right now and the planned redevelopment of the existing site will not address the ongoing needs.
“We would very much welcome a meeting with the Victorian government so they can show us how the redevelopment will do this.
Cr Whitehead added that the Towong Shire has the slowest ambulance response times in Victoria and this can only be improved by building a new facility. 
“We recognise that travelling times can be longer in rural areas but the problem is compounded by ambulance ramping at the Albury hospital. 
“Without adequate capacity in a new single site hospital there is little hope that there will ever be any improvement.
“The further you are away from the metropolitan and regional centres, the more important it is to have the appropriate quality and quantity of health services.
“This is not about beating up on the Victorian state government.
“There needs to be a tripartite project with both state governments and the commonwealth government working together,” Cr Whitehead emphasised.
“It was prime minister Gough Whitlam who had the vision in 1972 to select Albury and Wodonga to be a national growth centre. We have now grown to a region of 300,000 people.
“Sadly, it appears that this vision for a cross border national growth centre has been completely lost on our current state and federal governments. 
“We are calling on our current political leaders to be visionary and courageous again!”
The rally will be held on Sunday 10 August at the Corryong Memorial Hall from 12.00pm.
The Victorian Premier and Victorian Minister for Health have both been invited as well as local state and Australian government representatives.