Dr Robin Williams appointed Chair of WNSW PHN Board of Directors
General Practitioner Dr Robin Williams has been appointed the new Chair of the Board of Directors of the Western Health Alliance (WHAL), which operates as WNSW PHN.
Dr Williams was welcomed into the role after the resignation of Dr Tim Smyth, who had chaired the Board since August 2015. Dr Smyth and his family are intending to move interstate later this year.
Dr Williams began his time as a doctor in regional NSW when he spent a year working at Dubbo Base Hospital in the 1980s. He returned to his home in Wales, but rural NSW beckoned, and he emigrated to Australia in 1997 where he settled as a GP in Gulgong.
Now working as a GP and hospital visiting medical officer at Molong and Yeoval, Dr Williams has previously been a member of the NSW Ministerial Advisory Committee on Rural Health and has served as a Director and Chair of the NSW Rural Doctors Network and Chair of the Western NSW Local Health District.
Dr Williams thanked Dr Smyth for his work as Chair and said he was looking forward to stepping into the role.
"The PHN has had many successes and achieved many great things under the leadership of Dr Smyth and I am honoured to be able to lead this team into the future, so we can ensure the people of western NSW have access to excellent primary health care," Dr Williams said.
Dr Smyth is a former Deputy Director-General of the NSW Ministry of Health and has worked in a variety of clinical management and senior executive roles managing hospitals and health services in NSW.
Dr Smyth welcomed the appointment of Dr Williams and praised the work the Board, the executive team and staff had achieved over the past 4 years.
"With the move of my family interstate now on the horizon, it was timely to enable a transition to Dr Williams ahead of the AGM later this year. It has been an honour to serve as Chair of the Board and a pleasure to see how the Primary Health Network has grown since its commencement in 2015. I would particularly like to pay tribute to the great staff. I look forward to seeing, albeit from a distance, the continued progress to support GPs, Aboriginal Health Services and primary care services in delivering high quality care to the people of western NSW," Dr Smyth said.