Most people visit a doctor once something goes wrong.
An injury.
A diagnosis.
A scare.
A symptom that finally becomes impossible to ignore.
But what if healthcare focused more on understanding health before illness begins?
That was the focus of a recent ABC Illawarra Drive interview featuring Phoenix Health Co founders Dr Oscar Horky and Wynter Dares, who discussed the philosophy behind the Illawarra’s newest preventative healthcare clinic opening at the Bruce Gordon Centre in Wollongong.
Speaking with ABC Illawarra’s Stefan Posthuma, the pair explored the growing need for more connected, personalised and preventative approaches to healthcare.
Moving Beyond Reactive Healthcare
Dr Oscar Horky, a GP with experience across emergency medicine, urgent care and general practice, explained that many chronic diseases begin developing long before symptoms appear.
“The current establishment of healthcare is often based on certain numbers triggering a reaction,” Dr Horky explained during the interview.
“But there’s a whole prelude of disease process that leads up to conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and chronic illness.”
Rather than waiting for illness to emerge, Phoenix Health Co has been designed around helping people better understand their health earlier through comprehensive assessments, advanced diagnostics, movement, recovery and long-term health planning.
“It’s not about over investigating or over treating,” Dr Horky said.
“It’s actually about personalisation and understanding someone’s overall risk profile and individual goals.”
Medicine. Movement. Recovery.
Phoenix Health Co combines general practice, exercise physiology, recovery, movement and preventative health services under one roof.
The facility will include:
GP consultation rooms
foundational health assessments
advanced blood testing
DEXA scanning
VO2 max testing
gym and movement spaces
sauna and cold plunge recovery facilities
According to co-founder Wynter Dares, the goal is to create a more connected healthcare experience.
“We don’t need more disconnected appointments,” he said during the interview.
“We need a plan.”
Phoenix’s foundational health assessments are designed to give patients a clearer understanding of:
current health markers
family history risks
metabolic and cardiovascular health
body composition and movement capacity
long-term health goals
From there, personalised plans can be developed around areas including:
healthy ageing
men’s health
women’s hormonal health
perimenopause and menopause
performance and recovery
weight optimisation
longevity and vitality
Why Preventative Health Matters
One of the strongest themes discussed during the ABC interview was the growing burden of chronic disease and the importance of intervening earlier.
Conditions like:
osteoporosis
cardiovascular disease
insulin resistance
type 2 diabetes
dementia
muscle loss and frailty
often develop silently over many years before symptoms become obvious.
For many people, these conditions feel distant or associated only with “older age” — until they affect someone close to them.
Phoenix believes preventative healthcare should help people better understand what may be happening beneath the surface before disease progresses.
That may include:
identifying reduced bone density earlier
assessing cardiovascular risk markers
understanding insulin resistance
improving strength and movement capacity
addressing lifestyle risk factors before long-term damage occurs
The goal is not fear.
The goal is time.
Time to intervene earlier.
Time to build healthier habits.
Time to improve long-term health outcomes.
A New Preventative Health Model For The Illawarra
Phoenix Health Co is expected to open in July 2026 at the Bruce Gordon Centre at the University of Wollongong Innovation Campus.
As discussed during the ABC interview, the broader vision is not simply to create another clinic or gym, but to help reshape how people think about long-term health.
Because healthcare shouldn’t only begin once something goes wrong.
Sometimes the most important health conversations happen while people still feel well.
🎧 Listen to the full ABC Illawarra interview above.
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