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About the MPS Program
The demographic and social profile of rural Australia has
changed substantially over the last decade as has the way
health care is delivered and funded. Such factors are having
a major impact on small rural and remote communities and the
role of their health services. Hospital stays are shorter,
there is expanding use of technology, more services are delivered
in the community and increasingly more older people are choosing
to be cared for at home. Further, there is greater emphasis
on primary health care including health improvement and prevention
programs.
The traditional hospital structure and models of care need
to change to reflect the changed environment. For small rural
and remote communities, flexible service models need to be
developed which are more client-focussed and responsive to
communities' needs and offer better integration of services.
In 1992/93 the Australian Government and State Governments
established the Rural Hospital and Health Service Program,
now better known as the Multi Purpose Service (MPS) Program,
as one model of service delivery to address the difficulties
of providing health, aged and community services in rural
and remote communities. The MPS Program aims to pool the assorted
health and aged care resources available to rural and remote
communities under one management structure, into one multifunction,
easily assessable, sustainable health, aged and community
services facility - known as an MPS.
The core services of an MPS could include:
- acute services, including emergency and outpatient services;
- residential aged care services, nursing home or hostel
services or both;
- community based services, such as community nursing,
physiotherapy, podiatry, etc.
The NSW Government has a history of working collaboratively
with the Australian Government in the development of the Multi
Purpose Service Program. The provision of aged care services
is undertaken by the NSW Government when they can be accommodated
within the State and Area Healthcare Plans for capital investment,
though primary responsibility for meeting the aged care needs
of the population rests with the Australian Government.
An MPS sets aside the normal program guidelines and constraints
so that smaller communities can integrate services, better
match services to community needs, achieve gains in productivity,
reduce administration overheads and share resources. The greater
aims of the MPS delivery model are:
- establishment of viable acute health, aged care and community
services;
- improved access to appropriate services; and
- increased co-ordination, flexibility and innovative service
delivery.
Since the Program's conception, 49 MPSs have been developed
or are in their final stages of development, with 39 MPSs
(by the end of 2008) operational.
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