Important Dates
01 July 2026 - Nominations Open
02 September 2026 - Nominations Close
November 2026 - Finalist Notification
20 March 2027 - WA Rural Health Excellence Awards Ceremony and Gala Dinner
Award Categories and Criteria
Eligibility
Please review the below eligibility for all nominations, noting some categories also have their own specific eligibility.
- At the time of the nomination, all nominees must be delivering health services to rural and remote communities on the mainland of Western Australia, defined as MMM2-7 locations.
- Unless otherwise stated, at the time of the nomination, nominees must have delivered services in rural WA location for more than two years.
- Nominations must be submitted by the closing date (2 September 2026) via the official online portal.
- Nominations can be submitted by supervisors, peers and organisations. We do not accept self-nominations outside of the Health Team of the Year Award.
- Community members can submit a nomination for the Health Service Contributor of the Year Award
- All nominations must be endorsed by a colleague, supervisor or professional peer of the nominee.
2027 Categories
- Aboriginal Health Professional of the Year
- Allied Health Professional of the Year
- Clinical Leader of the Year
- Early Career Health Professional of the Year
- General Practitioner (GP) of the Year
- Health Service Contributor of the Year
- Health Team of the Year
- Nurse or Midwife of the Year
- Specialist (Non-GP) of the Year
For the full list of categories and criteria please click here
Nomination Review Process
Review Process
The review process is designed to ensure fairness, transparency and recognition of merit. It involves three rounds of review.
- Initial Review: Awards organisers will read the nomination. If the nomination is lacking information or could be improved and time permits, it will be returned to the nominator with feedback. If changes have not been made by the closing date, the nomination will either be accepted or declined.
- Round One: Nominations are divided between six review panels. Each panel (3 members) reviews and scores nominations based on the published selection criteria.
- Round Two: The top five scoring nominations in each category are reviewed again. Round Two reviewers (3 members) will then recommend three finalists and one winner from the finalists per category.
- Round Three: Finalists and winners are reviewed by a final review panel (2 members). They may endorse the recommendations or re-review the top five to make alternate selections.
All reviewers are health professionals, rural health stakeholders or industry representatives, invited to participate in the review process by the event organisers. Finalists will be announced November 2026. Winners will be revealed at the Awards Gala Ceremony on Saturday 20 March 2027.
Conflict of Interest Disclosure
To ensure the integrity of the review process:
- All members of the review process are required to declare any actual, potential or perceived conflicts of interest.
- If a reviewer has a personal or professional relationship with a nominee, they will recuse themselves from reviewing that particular nomination.
- If a reviewer recuses themselves from a nomination, that nomination will be reviewed by the Conflict-of-Interest Reviewer to ensure it still receives the full review process.
Terms & Conditions
By submitting a nomination for the WA Rural Health Excellence Awards 2027, nominators agree to the following terms and conditions:
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Rural Health West reserves the right to extend or amend nomination deadlines where appropriate and necessary.
Nominations must be factually accurate and based on truthful representation of the nominee's work and achievements.
All nominations must be endorsed by a colleague, supervisor or professional associate of the nominee. The endorser may be contacted to verify details or clarify content within the nomination.
Nominations which are deemed by the Awards organisers or judging panel to contain insufficient information or supporting evidence may not be considered.
Rural Health West reserves the right to use all or part of any nomination material, including written content, images and testimonials for the purpose of promoting the WA Rural Health Excellence Awards, including through print, online and social media platforms.
The judging panel reserves the right to reallocate nominations to a different award category if deemed more appropriate.
The judging process is confidential. All decisions made by the judging panel are final, and no further correspondence or appeal will be entered into regarding outcomes.
Rural Health West takes no responsibility for incomplete or late submissions. It is the responsibility of the nominator to ensure all materials are submitted before the published deadline.
All personal information collected will be handled in accordance with the Rural Health West Privacy Policy and used only for the administration and promotion of the Awards.