About us - Gateway Health

Gateway Health employs more than 390 staff providing a range of primary health and welfare services across the Ovens Murray region in northeast Victoria and parts of southern New South Wales.

We are focused on the provision of primary health and welfare services to people at the highest risk of poor health outcomes. We deliver services through a mix of centre-based in Wodonga, Wangaratta and Myrtleford, and outreach to rural communities across the region.

Gateway Health has received accreditation against the following standards:

RACGP Standards – Accredited General Practice (AGPAL)
NDIS Practice Standards
Rainbow Tick Standards
Human Services Standards
National Standards for Mental Health Services
QIC Health and Community Services Standards

Visit our quality of care standards page to find out more.

Gateway Health is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee and a registered Community Health Service under the Health Services Act 1998 (Vic).

Gateway Health is a values-based organisation, striving to continually provide high-quality services that create a positive client experience and enable people to live well. Underpinned by a focus on health promotion and prevention, Gateway Health provides primary health services to people of all ages experiencing diverse health and wellbeing needs.

Services are provided across the life span, from childhood to becoming a parent, adulthood and older age.

The suite of services we provide has grown to include medical practices; allied health; alcohol and other drug services; generalist counselling; family violence programs; gamblers help services; Indigenous programs; aged care services including assessment; disability services; headspace, youth services; regional bush fire response; parenting and family support programs; refugee health; and sexual health clinics. Many of these services operate at the interface between acute care, aged care and primary health care to ensure a seamless transition of care between healthcare providers.

Gateway Health collaborates at many levels with other sectors such as justice, education, housing and employment to support individual client care, and to address the determinants of health at a broader systems level. We seek to strengthen this role by building on existing services and promoting leadership and transformation across the sector.

Gateway Health is committed to delivering positive client and population health outcomes with a focus on early intervention, prevention and health promotion. This focus is supported and put into action through a well-established health promotion program that works in partnership with communities, local government, and a range of public and private entities to implement interventions aimed at strengthening the systems and environments that support the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities.
Gateway Health is a significant employer in the region, with over 350 staff from a diverse range of backgrounds, qualifications and experience. Staff and clients are supported by a network of up to 80 volunteers at any one time.

We recognise that staff and volunteers are the organisation’s greatest asset, and are critical in representing and delivering on our values and aspirations. This recognition underpins our commitment to creating a workforce that reflects the diversity of the community it serves.

The 2020-2023 Strategic Plan will be operationalised through the quality, professionalism and passion of Gateway Health’s staff and volunteers.

Our culture of service is built on and strengthened by our commitment and a shared belief in serving the community.
Gateway Health serves a culturally diverse, growing, and ageing population of over 170,000 people across the 15 local government areas (LGAs) that make up its primary catchment in Victoria.

While the region’s population is mainly concentrated in the rural cities of Wodonga and Wangaratta, many people live in smaller townships in the hills and valleys of the surrounding region.

Gateway Health also draws on a wider catchment that includes parts of southern NSW for the delivery of programs directly funded by NSW Health, such as the refugee health program, and as a result of client choice in the unique Albury-Wodonga cross-border environment.

The communities in northeast Victoria and southern NSW are changing. Originally founded on agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism, many parts of the region have been impacted by long-standing drought, and more recently flood and bushfire.

Some regional centres, such as Wodonga, have seen strong population growth while others have or are expected to decline. This change has seen an increasing number of young families, often from diverse cultural backgrounds, coming into regional centres, such as Wodonga, and is countered by an ageing population within many smaller rural and regional towns, such as Benalla.

The changes in demography and a shifting local economy towards increased tourism and health and other service industries are influencing, shaping, and informing community needs and preferences, and thus the associated services required.
Gateway Health is built on a strong history and deep connection to the communities it has served for many years, both in its current form and its predecessors.

Gateway Health was formed through the merger in 2014 of Gateway Community Health in Wodonga and Ovens and King Community Health Service in Wangaratta.

Each of these had a substantial history of service and achievement in their own right, dating back to earlier forms of community health service across the region.

A full history of the organisation remains to be written.

We would love to hear from anyone with knowledge of the earlier histories of Gateway Health, Ovens and King Community Health, and other predecessor organisations that go back even further.

Please feel free to contact us with information and anecdotes of all kinds to help us develop a more fully documented history of the organisations – and more importantly the people that have helped pave the way for Gateway Health as it is today and into the future.

Email communication@gatewayhealth.org.au.