Who is NQPHN?
Northern Queensland Primary Health Network (NQPHN) connects, funds, and supports primary healthcare services and providers so all northern Queenslanders can access the care and information they need to live healthier lives.
We do this through our ‘Three Cs’ framework:
- Commissioning targeted services that respond to local health challenges and opportunities.
- Capacity building to strengthen the primary healthcare workforce and support innovation, data and quality improvement, business sustainability, and reform.
- Coordinating and connecting care across the system to improve access, as well as patient and provider experiences.
Our priority areas for the 2024-25 financial year include Population Health Priorities, Mental Health and Alcohol and Other Drugs, GPs and Other Primary Care Professionals, First Nations Health, and System Integration.
The NQPHN region is home to approximately 700,000 people, and extends from St Lawrence in the south coast, up to the Torres Strait in the north, and west to Croydon and Kowanyama.
We have over 90 staff operating across three offices in Cairns (Gimuy-Walubura Yidinji and Djabugay Nation country), Townsville (Bindal and Wulgurukaba country), and Mackay (Yuwibara country).
We are one of 31 regionalised and independent PHNs established nationally by the Commonwealth Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (DHDA). Find out more about the PHN program on the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing website.
NQPHN will achieve its objectives through:
- purposeful engagement
- partnerships and collaboration
- building capacity and capability
- innovation for outcomes
- embracing technology-enabled care
- strategic and transparent commissioning.

From July 2025, we launched our new Strategic Plan 2025-28, which you can see here.
Our objectives and Strategic Plan
NQPHN's Strategic Plan 2021-26 is an ambitious plan that aims to strengthen the primary health care sector in northern Queensland.
The Plan outlines six priority areas of focus (from 2021 to 2025) that will achieve NQPHN’s main objectives, and include:
- Improved access and coordination of mental health services.
- Equity for First Nations Peoples through improved health access and health outcomes.
- Building workforce capacity and capability of GPs and primary care professionals for the future.
- Ensuring that people receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time.
- Prevention, promotion, and early intervention focused on life stages of need.
- Our people work collaboratively and are enabled to achieve NQPHN’s strategic objectives with the right systems, processes, and access to data.
This Values-Behaviour Blueprint provides a summary of NQPHN’s Values-Behaviour Charter. The Charter represents a shared commitment from all staff to improving the future ways of working at NQPHN. The purpose of this charter is to outline the behaviours and actions expected of leaders and staff across NQPHN. Our values include:
