NSW Health Pathology has won a gold award in the ACON Health + Wellbeing Equality Index (HWEI) and been named Most Improved Service Provider, celebrating the organisation’s significant progress in LGBTQIA+ inclusion.

NSW Health Pathol­o­gy is proud to have been recog­nised as a gold tier ser­vice provider at the 2026 Aus­tralian Pride in Health + Well­be­ing Awards, in addi­tion to being named Most Improved Ser­vice Provider of the Year.

The recog­ni­tion marks a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone in NSWHP’s ongo­ing com­mit­ment to cre­at­ing inclu­sive, safe and affirm­ing work­places and health­care expe­ri­ences for LGBTQIA+ staff and patients.

“This year’s gold award fol­lows our sil­ver in 2025 and is under­pinned by a remark­able 53 per cent increase in our over­all score, reflect­ing the exten­sive work hap­pen­ing across the organ­i­sa­tion,” said Jes­si­ca Lee, NSWHP Deputy Direc­tor – Strate­gic HR & Projects.

“The HWEI recog­nis­es mea­sur­able progress in LGBTQIA+ inclu­sion across pol­i­cy, cul­ture, ser­vice deliv­ery and staff engage­ment. NSW Health Pathology’s results demon­strate a whole-of-organ­i­sa­tion effort.

“Key ini­tia­tives sup­port­ing this out­come include the con­tin­ued roll­out of LGBTQIA+ train­ing for front­line staff, led by Judy Kemp­ton-Webb, Lor­ret­ta Thom­son and the entire Pre-Ana­lyt­i­cal team, along­side affir­ma­tion cards and oth­er prac­ti­cal ini­tia­tives sup­port­ing inclu­sive patient care.”

Pride Month activ­i­ties across the state were strength­ened through the efforts of a ded­i­cat­ed employ­ee work­ing group, while NSW Health Pathol­o­gy staff for the sec­ond con­sec­u­tive year proud­ly marched in the Syd­ney Gay and Les­bian Mar­di Gras along­side their NSW Health colleagues.

The ongo­ing work of Path­Pride, NSW Health Pathology’s LGBTQIA+ staff and ally net­work, con­tin­ues to fos­ter advo­ca­cy and belong­ing across the organisation.

Congratulations from ACON chief

At the recent awards event, ACON CEO Michael Wood­house con­grat­u­lat­ed all win­ners, nom­i­nees and attendees.

“It’s always encour­ag­ing to see health com­mu­ni­ty care ser­vices step up to cre­ate safer expe­ri­ences and more equi­table out­comes for our com­mu­ni­ties,” Mr Wood­house said.

“More ser­vices are recog­nis­ing the unique needs of LGBTQ+ peo­ple and evolv­ing their sys­tems and cul­tures to deliv­er tru­ly per­son-cen­tred care.

“Research from La Trobe University’s Rain­bow Real­i­ties shows many peo­ple in our com­mu­ni­ties access main­stream ser­vices and sim­ply want to be treat­ed with respect by inclu­sive organisations.”

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