About Hunter New England Population Health

Hunter New England Population Health is a unit of Hunter New England Health responsible for the delivery of population health services to the people of the Hunter New England Health Region. Population health services seek to improve the health of the entire population, or groups within it, through the provision of services on a population-wide rather than individual basis. Our vision is that Hunter New England Population Health leads the development of healthy environments, health communities and healthy people. Our mission is to monitor, protect and promote the health and well-being of people in the Hunter New England and wider communities.

Our services include the monitoring of health threats and trends, responding to environmental, emergency and communicable disease threats, and promoting policies, services, environments and behaviours that are conducive to good health. Such services are delivered in an integrated fashion, incorporating the principles and strategies of epidemiology, surveillance, health protection, health promotion and research.

The people we serve number more than 836,211 and live in an area of about 132,845 square kilometres. Cardiovascular disease, cancer and injury continue to form the major burden of disease in our community. Health behaviours such as smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, inadequate physical activity and poor nutrition continue to be major contributors to this disease burden. Communicable disease and environmental health risks remain a challenge. Health inequalities impact negatively on the health of the population. A health profile of the Hunter and New England population can be found in the Health of Hunter New England Electronic-Resource.