Dr Robin Williams has replaced Dr Tim Smyth, the retiring and inaugural chairman of the Western Health Alliance (WHAL) which operates as the WNSW PHN.

On July 1, 2015, the federal government established 31 PHNs which are charged with supporting and strengthen general practice, Aboriginal health services, allied health professionals and other health professionals working in primary health care.

The new chairman said the WNSW PHN had "many successes and achieved many great things" under the leadership of Dr Smyth.

"..I am honoured to be able to lead this team into the future, so we can ensure the people of Western NSW have access to excellent primary health care," Dr Williams said.

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The new chairman has previously been a member of the NSW Ministerial Advisory Committee on Rural Health and has served as a director and chairman of the NSW Rural Doctors Network and chairman of the Western NSW Local Health District.

Dr Williams began his medical career in regional NSW, spending a year in the 1980s working at the then named Dubbo Base Hospital.

He returned to his home in Wales, but rural NSW beckoned and the future chairman of the WNSW PHN emigrated to Australia in 1997.

The general practitioner and hospital visiting medical officer at Molong and Yeoval was a director of the WNSW PHN before being elevated to the role of chairman.

Dr Smyth is a former deputy director-general of the NSW Ministry of Health and has worked in clinical management and senior executive roles in hospitals and health services in NSW.

He is moving his family interstate requiring a "timely" transition ahead of the WHAL annual general meeting later this year.

"I look forward to seeing, albeit from a distance, the continued progress to support GPs, Aboriginal health services and primary care services in delivering high quality care to the people of Western NSW," Dr Smyth said.

The WNSW PHN is aligned with both the Far West and Western NSW local health districts and covers much of rural and remote NSW.