"In the last 10 years we've achieved a lot of things we never expected to but none of that happens without the people - the doctors, nurses and all the staff, the volunteers, the community, the patients, everyone," she said.

"Without them this is just an empty building, which we found very quickly at the old hospital site on Dalton Street. It's hard to believe it's been 10 years since we moved to our new digs."

The new Orange Hospital officially opened its doors on March 16, 2011 and a swarm of staff, volunteers and members of the wider community gathered at the Forest Road site to celebrate its 10^th anniversary, or birthday, on Tuesday morning.

Ms Nowlan reflected fondly on that decade as did a number of others, with Western NSW Local Health District board chair Scott Griffiths and executive medical director, Dr Geoffrey Chu both highlighting the progress made throughout.

Newly graduated social worker Madison Spence also spoke with pride on behalf of Western LHD's Sandra Wicks, who outlined the huge improvements in making healthcare accessible and appropriate for Indigenous patients.

The crowd was also treated to celebrations of Indigenous culture from a Kinross Wolaroi School dance troupe and Orange High School didgeridoo players, the latter played as a tree was planted to mark the occasion.

"It's important to mark the 10-year celebration because it could easily march past without us acknowledging how far we've come in that time, how our services have evolved and how our community and teams have grown," Ms Nowlan said.

"We have our community that we are surrounded by (in Orange) but we also have a community that we serve in the Central West and Western NSW LHD too because we have a number of specialist services that service the whole region."

"I remember back ... when the decision was made that Orange would be the location for a significant hospital in the region, which meant it would serve the local population and provide specialist services to stop patients having to go to Sydney to get the care they needed," Mr Griffiths said.

"In the 10 years since it opened, Orange Hospital has certainly achieved that.

"I also remember walking through after it was first completed and thinking 'they've finally got one right' because you see many hospitals planned and built with a lot of compromises, but that didn't happen here."

Dr Chu echoed both Ms Nowlan and Mr Griffiths' sentiments, also lauding the work of all those involved over the last decade and prior to that too.

"We've witnessed the dramatic expansion of medical services since moving to the new site and the services we now provide were built from the pioneering work of our predecessors," he said.

"A number of those services would have been impossible to provide at the old site, but they have become a reality at the hospital we now have."

"Th development of the medical services has, in turn, extended the range of patients we've been able to treat and care for, but I'm hesitant to single out single departments."

So, what's to come in the next 10 years, and beyond?

"We have a lot more to achieve and we're looking forward, with pride, to a successful future and to working with our communities to ensure quality healthcare," Ms Nowlan said.

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