NHW is the major referral health service for the region, servicing some 28 townships beyond the boundaries of the Rural City of Wangaratta with a catchment population of approximately 90,000 people.

NHW is a group B health service and is situated in the Hume Region which is one of nine Department of Health regions in Victoria covering an approximate area of 42,923 square kilometres and stretches from the northern fringes of Melbourne to the Murray River, from the Victorian Alps in the east to the Goulburn Valley in the west. NHW provides services for public patients as well as private patients in the Hume Region.

NHW acts as a regional referral hospital for more complex patients from Bright, Mansfield, Beechworth, Myrtleford, Yarrawonga, Euroa, Benalla and Chiltern.