NSW health body placed in administration

An Aboriginal health service in regional NSW has been placed into special administration as plans have been announced to split the organisation in two.

The Wellington Aboriginal Corporation Health Service (WACHS), which delivers care to over 5000 people, has seen administrators called in after an investigation by the Registrar of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporations.

The registrar, Trisha Stroud, told the ABC the investigation had found disputes between the board’s directors which had and disrupted various parts of the organisation’s operations.

“There were a lot of allegations, but ultimately it meant that the corporation wasn’t being governed effectively, or in a way that was both compliant with its rule books, or in a way in which members of a corporation could reasonably expect of their directors,” Ms Stroud said.

There is now understood to be a desire to split the governance back into two bodies, one for the Wellington service in regional NSW and the other for Greater Western Sydney.

The two regions were merged in 2012.