This year marked our tenth anniversary as a PHN, a milestone that encouraged us to reflect and celebrate how far we’ve come since 2015, when PHNs were established to strengthen and improve the healthcare system.

One of our key roles as a PHN is to identify our community’s needs and advocate for funding where it is needed most, particularly where local priorities may not be visible at the state or national level. Over the past 10 years we’ve proudly introduced more than 20 additional services to our region, and many of these would not have been possible without our strong advocacy. 

We have also built strong collaborative partnerships with primary care and other key stakeholders to better integrate our local health system and improve health outcomes and worked closely with general practices to support them with data driven quality improvement and digital adoption.

When I reflect on the last decade, I am particularly proud of our efforts in disaster management. Our region has experienced more natural disasters than most in recent years and we have played a leading role in helping our local primary care providers, and other PHNs, prepare for disasters. We also successfully advocated to have primary care and PHNs formally recognised in the NSW state disaster plan.

I encourage you to read our recently published 2024-2025 Annual Report which not only showcases the work we have been doing over the past year but also reflects on some of our other achievements over the last decade.

As many of us look forward to the upcoming break, we acknowledge that this time of year can also be challenging, with added festive season stressors and now, the added trauma of recent events. If you or someone you know needs support, we encourage you to visit our website to find some of our local mental health services below, many of which are free and available throughout the holidays. If you or if someone you know is in crisis, call Lifeline 24/7 on 13 11 14.

Lastly, I extend my heartfelt thanks to our staff, commissioned providers, stakeholders and everyone who has supported our work, not just over the past year but over the past decade. Together, we’ve achieved incredible things, and we look forward to continuing this journey with you in 2026.

From all of us at Wentworth Healthcare, we wish you a safe and happy holiday season.