Strengthening cancer screening across the Murrumbidgee
With cancer incidence rising across the Murrumbidgee, improving participation in screening and supporting earlier detection remain important priorities for MPHN. Throughout 2025-2026, MPHN worked with general practices and partners to strengthen participation across bowel, cervical and breast cancer screening programs, while supporting preparations and early implementation of the new National Lung Cancer Screening Program.
Earlier conversations, better choices
Palliative care is about much more than a person’s final days. Yet a comprehensive new Health Needs Assessment (HNA) developed by MPHN in 2025-2026 has found that across the Murrumbidgee, it is still commonly understood as care provided only when someone is approaching death.
Growing support for young people, closer to home
For young people experiencing mental health challenges, access to the right support, close to home, can make a significant difference. headspace Wagga Wagga and headspace Griffith provide free, youth-friendly services for people aged 12 to 25, supporting their mental health and wellbeing alongside physical health, alcohol and other drug concerns, and work and study needs.
Turning Murrumbidgee data into better health decisions
What if we could see more clearly how people move through the health system and use that knowledge to design better healthcare? That is the opportunity LUMOS is creating for the Murrumbidgee, and in 2025-2026 participation from local general practices continued to grow.
LHACs: Community voices shaping better healthcare
Local Health Advisory Committees (LHACs) play a vital role in ensuring healthcare reflects the needs of the communities it serves. Working with MPHN and MLHD, 26 active LHAC committees operate across the Murrumbidgee, with more than 180 volunteers identifying local health needs, providing feedback, advocating for improved access to care and promoting health literacy and wellbeing.
Listening first to build better access to healthcare
Almost one in five people in the Murrumbidgee was born outside Australia. But behind that statistic sits an extraordinarily diverse community, including refugees, skilled migrants, international students, seasonal workers and families who have called the region home for generations.
Taking health information to Henty
At the Henty Machinery Field Days, MPHN took an extended range of health information directly to people from across the region.
Healthdirect: building confidence in virtual care
Virtual healthcare continues to help Murrumbidgee residents access the right care when and where they need it. MPHN strengthened its partnership with healthdirect Australia and Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) to increase awareness and use of virtual care across the region.
Working as one for a healthier Murrumbidgee
Some of the Murrumbidgee’s biggest health challenges cannot be solved by any one organisation or approach. Through its involvement in the Murrumbidgee Health and Knowledge Precinct, MPHN is working with partners across health, education, research, local industry, government and community to build a more connected, innovative and sustainable health system for the region.
Extending care through the flu season
MPHN supported general practices to increase access to care during the 2026 flu season. Through the After Hours Flu Season Grants, practices and Aboriginal Medical Services received funding to extend existing after-hours services or introduce additional after-hours consultations during May and June.
Bringing specialist women’s healthcare closer to home
For women living with endometriosis and persistent pelvic pain, accessing specialist care can be a long and difficult journey. In the Murrumbidgee, it previously also meant leaving the region. That changed in March 2026 with the opening of the Endometriosis and Pelvic Pain Clinic at Nova Health Co in Wagga Wagga – the Murrumbidgee’s first dedicated service of its kind.
Care that comes to the bedside
For residents of Uralba Hostel in Gundagai, accessing specialist care may no longer require leaving the comfort and familiarity of home. In May 2026, five residents received individual speech therapy consultations via telehealth, delivered directly to their rooms using purpose-designed mobile equipment funded by MPHN.
Connecting people with the right mental health support
During 2025-26, Medicare Mental Health supports continued to strengthen across the Murrumbidgee, providing more accessible pathways into care and helping people navigate an often-complex service system.
Connecting care finders across regions
Helping vulnerable older people navigate the aged care system can involve much more than finding the right service. Care finders often work with people experiencing social isolation, poor health, housing insecurity, or other complex circumstances, who may have no family or trusted person to help them navigate the system.
Riverina Community of Practice event shapes dementia support
As part of the Riverina Community of Practice professional development series, MPHN hosted a session in Young in April 2026, focussing on supporting health professionals to identify dementia earlier and connect people with appropriate care.
Celebrating the nurses at the heart of primary care
Across the Murrumbidgee, primary health care nurses play a vital role in keeping people well and connecting them with timely, accessible care close to home. On Primary Health Care Nurses Day in February, MPHN celebrated nurses from across the region and recognised the skill, professionalism and commitment they bring to their communities every day.
A milestone year for information security
In 2025-2026, MPHN achieved a significant milestone with ISO 27001:2022 certification, the internationally recognised standard for information security management systems. Certification confirms MPHN has effective systems and controls in place to protect information, manage security risks and strengthen organisational resilience.
Challenging how we think about ageing
Ageism can be easy to overlook. It can appear in the language people use, assumptions about what an older person can do, or decisions made about their healthcare without genuinely hearing their voice.
A shared plan for better mental health and wellbeing
A new five-year plan was launched in December 2025, sharing a roadmap for improving mental health and wellbeing across the Murrumbidgee with the 2025-2030 Murrumbidgee Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Alcohol and Other Drugs Regional Plan.