Wentworth Healthcare Celebrates 10 Years of Providing the NBMPHN

In July, Wentworth Healthcare was proud to mark 10 years of helping to build healthier communities across the Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury, Lithgow and Penrith areas through providing the Nepean Blue Mountains Primary Health Network. 

In 2015, the Federal Government established 31 Primary Health Networks (PHNs) nationally to help improve the healthcare system.  

PHNs were set up as regional organisations, to have a strong local focus, serving three main functions in the broader health system. Firstly, they fund non-hospital services in the community that meet local needs. Secondly, they support general practitioners (GPs) and other primary healthcare providers to deliver high-quality care, and lastly, they help join up health services so patients don’t get lost when they move from one part of the system to another.  

Wentworth Healthcare CEO, Lizz Reay, said that she was proud of what the organisation had achieved over the last ten years and of the services and programs that have made a difference to the lives of people living in the community.  

“Since becoming a PHN we have been able to bring at least 20 additional health services to the region. We now have four headspace Centres, two Medicare Mental Health Centres, one After Hours Clinic and three other after-hours services, two Urgent Care services and a drug and alcohol service in each local government area. We provide outreach services to schools and residential aged care homes and fund specialist clinics and telehealth services for priority populations such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and those living with chronic conditions,” she said.  

“We’ve implemented a domestic family and sexual violence program to support victim-survivors, social connection initiatives to address social isolation and a care finder service for older people needing help finding aged care services and many more,” she continued. 

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