Welcome to Sydney Local Health District, one of the top performing local health districts in New South Wales.

Our vision is excellence in health and healthcare for all.

About Sydney Local Health District

With about 16,000 staff, our District is responsible for the health and wellbeing of more than 740,000 people living within our boundaries, as well as many more from rural and remote parts of NSW and Australia. We also care for more than a million people who come into our District each day to work, study and visit.

Our District is located in the centre and inner west of Sydney and is made up of the Local Government Areas of the City of Sydney (part), Inner West Council, Canterbury-Bankstown (part), Canada Bay, Burwood and Strathfield. It covers a geographic area of approximately 126 square kilometres.

Sydney Local Health District is one of the most densely populated Local Health Districts in NSW and it is experiencing a period of rapid transformation and growth.

In the last five years, the Sydney Local Health District population has increased by 10.3 per cent which is higher than the overall growth in NSW (8.8 per cent). The population is expected to grow a further 26.2 per cent from 2021 to 2036.

How we deliver our services

Sydney Local Health District is made up of hospitals and health services delivered in various locations in the community and also in people’s homes. We also have a governing Board, administrative, research and training and other support services which enable us to deliver excellent healthcare.

Consumer engagement

We have regular opportunities to engage our community in our organisation. Consumers actively participate in the daily work of the District. Some examples include being part of our formal consumer participation network, feedback and consultation sessions, clinical co-design, committee representation, community events, fundraising and donations and volunteering. We are proud to have the largest mental health Peer Worker program in Australia for people with a lived experience of mental illness.

Our diverse communities

The traditional custodians of the land in Sydney Local Health District are the Gadigal, Wangal and Bediagal people of the EORA Nation. Around 1.1 per cent of the population identify as being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage.

The District is rich in cultural and social diversity and is home to a large number of established and emerging culturally and linguistically diverse communities. More than half of the District’s population speak a language other than English at home, including significant numbers of refugees, asylum seekers and special humanitarian entrants. Almost nine per cent of the District population speaks little or no English.

The major languages spoken at home include Chinese languages, Arabic, Greek, Korean, Italian and Vietnamese. New and emerging languages in the District include Bangla, Nepali, Rohingyan, Mongolian and Urdu.

A feature of the District’s social diversity is our proud lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) community. A number of our suburbs have the highest proportions of same-sex couples in Australia.

Sydney Local Health District is characterised by socio-economic diversity, with pockets of both extreme advantage and extreme disadvantage. The District is characterised by a large population of people who are homeless – over 6000 people.

The population aged 70 years and over has grown more than 19 per cent in the last five years and is expected to grow by 67 per cent between 2022 and 2036. There are around 4500 people living in residential aged care facilities.

More than 28,000 people with a disability live in the District and there are over 53,000 unpaid carers who provide support across the inner west.

Each year, almost 7900 babies are born to mothers residing in the District.

*Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2016: Dept of Planning and Environment 2016