Katherine West Project

Who are we?

Katherine West Health Board (KWHB) is an industry renowned provider of preventative, clinical and emergency primary health care in the Northern Territory. Founded in 1998, KWHB is a fully accredited Aboriginal community controlled health service based across the rolling river and desert country of the remote outback region to the south west of Katherine in Australia’s Northern Territory.

We aim to improve the health and wellbeing of all people in the Katherine West region.

We provide culturally secure primary health care and are a voice for our communities in all matters affecting our health.

We are funded by Australian and Northern Territory Government health care grants to deliver comprehensive, culturally appropriate primary health care services to all people across the Katherine West region.

Our History

The Katherine West Health Board emerged from the Coordinated Care Trial tests that took place across Australia in the mid-to-late 1990s. The trials aimed to address the way that chronically ill people were being treated in Australia’s healthcare system and allow localities to experiment alternative ways to deliver health services that better accommodated their population’s needs. Katherine West was one of four trials from the national program specifically working to improve outcomes for Aboriginal people.

Health services to communities in the Katherine West region improved significantly over the trial, including:

• The set-up of community-based health clinics.

• The residential placement of General Practitioners on communities for the first time.

• The establishment of a mobile health service to service remote bushland and outstations.

• An increase in Aboriginal health workers being trained and employed as health professionals in the region.

Learn more about the Coordinated Care Trial tests at the Parliament of Australia website.