News & Media

Heywood Rural Health (HRH) has welcomed two new members to the Board – Deborah (Deb) Loraine and Andrew Morecroft, while current Board Director and Chair, Tony Oxford will continue in his role for another 3 year term.

Deb Loraine was a Board Director with HRH previously and now that she has some more time available, decided to reapply and was successful, bringing a finance background to the Board.

Deb is looking forward to being able to contribute to the good governance and continued presence of HRH. Deb stated, HRH provides a vital service to Heywood, and it is very important that locals have a facility that provides a range of health services.

Andrew Morecroft is a brand-new Board Director and also new to the region, filling a legal skills gap that HRH had identified. Having retired in early 2023 and moved from Adelaide Hills in SA to the beautiful South West area of Victoria, he is hoping his legal and commercial skills, working for 25 years in the SA Government public sector will be an asset to the HRH Board.

Andrew wants to embrace local community life and what better way than giving back to the community with his past working knowledge to complement existing skills on the HRH Board.

Andrew stated, HRH provides a much-needed broad health service to the local community in an efficient and professional way, which he looks forward to contributing to in the future. Andrew is also the deputy chair of the Bayview College Board in Portland.

Tony Oxford has been a Board Director for the past six years and as his term was due to expire on 30 June 2024, he was required to reapply for his position which he was successful.

Board Director can only be on a Health Board for nine consecutive years and are then required to have a two year break before they can reapply.

Tony advised that with the new Board Directors appointed, HRH have a very strong Board with predominantly local representation which is pretty rare these days and is a huge strength for HRH.

We welcome our new Board Directors who will bring a lot of skill, governance and depth to the Board of Directors.