With the new Hospital on the way, Caren Harrison has taken up the reins as the new Health Service manager for Mudgee and Gulgong at a time of significant change - which she also sees as a time of opportunity.
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Caren left her native England for a working holiday in Australia in 2001 and "never went home".
"I fell in love with the country and where healthcare was at in Australia - it seemed a lot more advanced. Which is quite ironic, because we look to Europe and the UK for what is happening, but when I got here and worked at The Alfred I was in awe," she said.
After placements in Indigenous communities in far-north Queensland, she gained a fondness for remote areas and released the "tyranny of distance".
"You don't get that in the UK, nothing's more than five hours away, you go to France on a plane in that time. But here, five hours doesn't get you to Broken Hill," she said.
And after a remote aeromedical evacuation, she set her sights on joining the Royal Flying Doctors Service, which she did for nine years from 2009 - "living the dream". In the interests of family life, she decided to look for something else, settling in Mudgee after a holiday with husband Gus where she became acting nurse manager.
"It's a different environment, but the same set of challenges. It's remote health, we don't consider ourselves to be remote, but in fact we are," Caren said.
Construction of the next Mudgee Hospital is in full-swing, which means she's been appointed to the top job at a dynamic time.
"I love change, I know some people consider change to be unnerving and I have to bear that in mind, but I see change as our opportunity to try something different," she said.
"And just because you buy into a change, doesn't mean you say 'that's the way you have to do things from here on in'. Change, to me, is a very dynamic process - try something, is our patient outcome any better, if not let's reevaluate it and try something else.
"It's like school, you learn something else and you try and use it."
Mudgee Health Council chair, John Bentley, said that the group has praised what she's already brought to the role. "We're just thrilled with Caren's appointment - she's brought fresh ideas, energy and enthusiasm and knowledge," he said.
Although, Caren was quick to credit her team.
"I've surrounded myself with some incredible people and I'm so grateful, with the resources we have here in this hospital, because they've all stepped up to the plate," she said.
"I realised early on, that you're only as good as the people you surround yourself with and you give them the right tools they need to do their jobs. No man is an island."
