November 27, 2025Northern Health has marked a year of expansion and innovation at its Annual General Meeting, held earlier today.
Board Chair Adjunct Professor Alan Lilly, presiding over his first Annual General Meeting, paid tribute to former chair Jennifer Williams AM and outgoing board members Phillip Bain, Dr Sherene Devanesan AM, and Linda Rubenstein. He highlighted the organisation’s refreshed Strategic Plan, which will guide Northern Health until 2029 under the values Safe. Kind. Together.
Chief Executive Adjunct Professor Debra Bourne outlined record activity across the health service. Northern Hospital Epping remained Victoria’s busiest emergency department with 118,710 presentations. Across the year, Northern Health admitted 129,690 patients, performed 24,110 surgeries, and welcomed 3,386 babies.
Mental health services delivered 216,673 hours of community care and supported 2,820 inpatient admissions, including the opening of Victoria’s largest dedicated women’s mental health unit.
Northern Health continues to lead the way in healthcare innovation through the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED). Since its launch, VVED has cared for more than 500,000 patients and continues to grow. Around 85 per cent of patients with non-life-threatening emergencies received care in their own homes – significantly improving statewide access to emergency care.
The rise of digital health tools enables us to fulfill our commitment to delivering value-based healthcare. We are excited to announce that last night Northern Health won the prestigious 2025 Victorian Public Healthcare Award for Excellence in Value-Based Healthcare for our initiative: Transforming Asthma Care – Delivering Value-Based Care with a Co-Designed Asthma Digital Pathway. This innovative pathway was co-designed with consumers with lived experience to provide timely, personalised, and digitally enabled care that empowers patients to achieve the health outcomes that matter most to them while improving clinical efficiency.
Closer-to-home care remained a key focus this year, with new community hospitals opening in Craigieburn and Mernda. Work also began on Stage 1 of the new Ambulatory Care Centre, paving the way for Stage 2, a major milestone that will deliver a new emergency department fronting Cooper Street.
Northern Health strengthened academic partnerships with RMIT and La Trobe, supporting 148 new research projects and more than 350 publications. The organisation also ranked #1 in Victoria for energy efficiency and advanced its Reconciliation Action Plan, with over 700 staff completing cultural safety training.
Mr Lily said, “This culture of excellence, executed with a great sense of humility, is what makes Northern Health a great place to work and to receive care. A place that I am privileged to be a part of. “
Both Mr Lilly and Ms Bourne praised Northern Health’s 9,000 staff, volunteers, and partners for their dedication. Despite financial pressures, the service achieved a break-even result.
“As we look ahead, we remain focused on our values of Safe, Kind, Together, and on building a health system that meets the needs of our rapidly growing community,” Ms Bourne said.
