IN SHORT

• Carrathool Shire Council received a confidential financial information report on the Hillston Medical Centre to 31 December 2025 at its February ordinary meeting.
• The report was considered in a closed session of council under Section 10A(c) of the Local Government Act 1993, which permits proceedings to be closed where disclosure would confer a commercial advantage on a person with whom the council is conducting or proposes to conduct business. 
• The specific financial details of the report were not disclosed publicly.

Access to quality medical services in remote and rural communities is one of the most persistent challenges facing towns across the western interior of New South Wales. When a small shire takes a direct role in supporting or facilitating a local medical centre, the financial and operational health of that facility becomes a matter of legitimate public interest, even when the specific commercial details must, by necessity, be handled carefully to protect the council's negotiating position and business relationships.

Carrathool Shire Council received a financial update on the Hillston Medical Centre covering the period to 31 December 2025 at its February ordinary meeting. The report was considered in a closed council session convened under Section 10A(c) of the Local Government Act 1993, which allows a council to close proceedings to the public where the information being discussed, if disclosed, would confer a commercial advantage on a person with whom the council is conducting or proposes to conduct business. The resolutions of the session were noted when council returned to open session, but the financial detail of the report remains confidential.

What the closed session treatment confirms is that the council is actively monitoring the medical centre's financial performance and taking its governance obligations in relation to the facility seriously. Hillston, as the shire's largest town and administrative centre, depends on its medical centre as the primary point of access to general practice healthcare for a large and dispersed rural population. The capacity of that service to remain financially viable and to attract and retain practitioners is a community priority that the council has a legitimate interest in watching closely.

The council's General Manager, Rick Warren, also noted in the meeting's discussion of ongoing actions, that negotiations regarding aged care reform are continuing, with council in discussions with preferred providers about a potential transition of services. That matter is being progressed in tandem with the broader healthcare infrastructure questions that the Hillston Medical Centre update addresses.