Staff say their colleagues have been sacked over criticisms of a controversial $558 million redevelopment of the hospital.<\/p>\n
Albury Hospital staff say there have been safety concerns at the hospital. (ABC News: Jason Katsaras)<\/p>\n
The Albury Hospital Branch of the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association echoed those concerns.<\/p>\n
“Nurses and midwives working across AWH have raised serious and longstanding concerns regarding safety, governance and organisational transparency,” union delegate and nurse Kim Cole said after a union meeting on March 20.<\/p>\n
The union also called on both the NSW and Victorian health ministers to address staff who did not feel safe to raise patient safety concerns at the hospital.<\/p>\n
The interim CEO, Professor Way, is expected to meet with staff on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
In a statement, an AWH spokesperson said Professor Way would work with staff to implement all of the findings of Safer Care Victoria’s independent review.<\/p>\n
Stan Stavros, the spokesperson for community advocacy group Better Border Health, told Victorian Statewide Mornings he was not surprised by the announcement.<\/p>\n
He said Mr Appleby’s resignation was “inevitable” after multiple votes of no confidence since October last year and poor staff survey results.<\/p>\n
“This is not a moment for warm words or hollow tributes,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
he said.<\/p>\n
“Under Mr Appleby’s leadership, serious concerns were raised about the culture at Albury Wodonga Health, including claims of fear, intimidation and harm to the careers of respected doctors and nurses.”<\/p>\n
He said the health service needed to reinstate several senior staff members who had left the health service in recent months.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/9fe53f962c3438d5c2017c1d21c83f4e.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Stan Stavros has called on more AWH executives to stand down. (ABC Goulburn Murray: Erin Somerville)<\/p>\n
“If [AWH] is serious about rebuilding trust, the change cannot stop with the CEO,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Better Border Health is calling for the immediate reinstatement of John Stuchbery, Lachie McKeeman, Geoff Hudson and David Clancy in the interests of patient safety, clinical leadership and community confidence.”<\/p>\n
AMA says move a ‘circuit breaker’<\/p>\n
Australian Medical Association Victoria president Simon Judkins said the resignation had the potential to be a “significant circuit breaker”.<\/p>\n
“Clearly we are in a process of trying to rebuild that trust and confidence in the CEO, board and executive’s relationships with senior medical staff,” Dr Judkins said.<\/p>\n
“We are hoping that an announcement like this will enable those relationships to start to be rebuilt.”<\/p>\n
![\"Man](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/41fce9f0ef772b5603b38b50fecfd08a.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Simon Judkins says AMA Victoria is working to restore trust between staff and executive management. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
Dr Judkins said he believed the situation at the health service has become “dire”, with trust and confidence between senior medical staff and the board, CEO and executive strained.<\/p>\n
He said despite the announcement, more work needed to be done.<\/p>\n
“There have been some reasonably constructive meetings between senior medical staff, board members and other members of the executive,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We were involved in those, and they started to spell out the next steps in trying to get Albury Wodonga Health back on track.”<\/p>\n
Minister says serious improvement needed<\/p>\n
Victorian Minister for Health Mary-Anne Thomas acknowledged Bill Appleby\u2019s service to the hospital and said she expected recommendations from the Safer Care Victoria review would be implemented in full.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/48ac9ed2c98d5545e422ef6fb7348ae7.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Mary Anne Thomas says workplace culture at the health service needs improvement. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
But she also acknowledged that workplace morale at AWH was at a low.<\/p>\n
“There’s no beating around the bush; the culture at AWH needs serious improvement,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
she said.<\/p>\n
“There is a lot of work to do and we need to get this right.”<\/p>\n
She welcomed Professor Way’s appointment, saying he brought extensive experience to the position, after senior health service roles in the UK and more than a decade as the CEO of Alfred Health.<\/p>\n
“I am confident that Professor Way is up to this challenge,” she said.<\/p>\n
“As the border region grows, it’s crucial AWH is able to attract and retain staff.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The chief executive officer of an embattled health service on the Victorian-New South Wales border has stepped down.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[275],"tags":[181311,181313,181312,181314,18,135,475,474,19,17,3306],"class_list":["post-399065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-albury-hospital","tag-albury-wodonga-health","tag-bill-appleby","tag-ceo-resigns","tag-eire","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-resignation"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116276220766524166","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/346de8eb398c22efde4d613cdc0f8a4b.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n