Northeast Health Wangaratta (NHW) was established in 1872 on the site of the present facility. Since then it has grown and developed as the major referral health service for the region, servicing some 28 townships beyond the boundaries of the Rural City of Wangaratta with a catchment population of approximately 90,000 people.

NHW is a group B health service and is situated in the Hume Region which is one of nine Department of Health regions in Victoria covering an approximate area of 42,923 square kilometres and stretches from the northern fringes of Melbourne to the Murray River, from the Victorian Alps in the east to the Goulburn Valley in the west.  NHW provides services for public patients as well as private patients in the Hume Region.

The acute hospital provides a 24 hour/ 7 days a week Emergency Department service.  Diagnostic services are provided on site through the Radiology, Pathology and Nuclear Medicine departments.  Other integrated healthcare services are provided such as; Acute, Sub-Acute, Paediatrics, Obstetrics, Special Care Neonatal, Critical Care, Dialysis, Day Stay, Oncology, Adult Psychiatry, Aged Care, Allied Health, and a wide range of Community based programs.

NHW acts as a regional referral hospital for more complex patients from Bright, Mansfield, Beechworth, Myrtleford, Yarrawonga, Euroa, Benalla and Chiltern.

In addition to the clinical aspects of the organisation, areas such as Food Services cater for Meals on Wheels and other outside organisations.  Products and consultancy services are also provided from NHW’s other business services such as; Human Resources, Information Technology, Health Information Management, Radiology, Pharmacy, Stores, Finance and Facilities & Maintenance departments to the region.

NHW is a node for the Melbourne University Rural Clinical School.

NHW is governed by an eight member Board of Management.  The current President is Chris. Cunningham and Vice President is Allan Wills.  Nominations are accepted each January for the start of the new Board term from 1 July.

NHW has gained current Accreditation with the Australian Council of Healthcare Standards to December 2013.

Organisational Structure

Board of Management

Board Members are appointed to a three year term by the Minister for Health and are responsible to the Minister under the Health Services Act 1988. The current Board of Management President is Chris Cunningham and Vice President is Allan Wills.

The Board of Management at Northeast Health Wangaratta has the overall responsibility for providing an ongoing and high quality health care service to meet the needs of people within North East Victoria. In order to provide effective leadership, the Board must consider both clinical and financial aspects of the business.
Clinical governance is the phrase used to describe the framework we use to make sure that Quality and Safety of patient care is maintained and improved. Although the Board of Management is ultimately responsible for clinical governance, quality and safety is the responsibility of everyone at NHW.
To enable accurate and appropriate decisions to be made from a clinical governance perspective, structures need to be in place to allow accurate communication of information to and from the Board of Management. The link between the Board and staff is the Executive Team lead by the Chief Executive Officer. The Board operates a committee structure (shown below) to support effect clinical governance.

Executive Team

The Executive Team works closely with the Board of Management on clinical and corporate governance as well as manages all the day to day aspects of the organisation.