Walgett

[Music] My name is Christopher Gould, and my position here is supervising scientists. There are six people in the pathology team, but we collaborate with pathologists from a wide area. The best thing about working here is the country atmosphere and the people. The people are very friendly. It's a little different here, as it's a mix of 50 percent original staff and others, but the vast majority are very friendly.

That works. [Music]

'Yaama,' which means hello in Gamilaroi language.

My name is Lakkari Pitt, and I'm a very proud Gamilaroi woman, originally from Walgett, New South Wales. Both of my parents are from Walgett, and I have a very big Aboriginal family on both sides, which I'm very proud to come from.

I'm exhibiting 'Wabu,' which means 'riverbend' in Gamilaroi language, and it is a series of four artworks based on the stories that my nan has passed down to my mum about living on the Namoi River in Walgett. She often told stories about how much she loved growing up on the Namoi River with her family, going down to the river to fish or play as kids – that was a really big part of her childhood.

Wabu's color palette is inspired by the different foliage that you see along the river, as well as the patterns that the 'gali,' which means water in Gamilaroi language, leaves. It's really just a celebration of my nan's experience and stories that my nan has passed down to my mum and I and all of our family about living on the Namoi River.

A multi-purpose is just a fantastic solution for rural towns. It means we can gather together all of the services for the town: aged care services, an emergency department, acute services, community health, and in some cases, general practice. And it's got the Commonwealth and the state together jointly funding and getting the community the services they need.

The inclusive nature of MPS's and that whole sense of a health community is what revitalises towns when they build an MPS. What the MPS is about is engaging with the communities and the key stakeholders very early on, which is all part of the planning. You'll find in these remote and rural towns, the town feels they own the hospital, the Health Service. It's an ownership that is really deep. Local people take huge pride in the health service, which is why with the MPS program, it's really critical that we talk to the community because, at the end of the day, it is their community, and they know better than any of us what their gaps are and what their service needs actually are. So that is a very fundamental but critical part of the MPS planning.

Where health districts really got a dream that with the new technology and the new drugs that are available, people that would have been admitted to an acute hospital five, ten years ago just don't need to be anymore. We really can care for them in their own hometown. So in every multipurpose of us, we're designing in first-class technology that means that an intensive us from Orange can look at a patient in Nyngan. A specialist respiratory physician can have a dialogue with a patient with asthma. Our new technology means that patients don't need to leave their hometown to receive specialist care.

The core services of an MPS are very clearly the provision of residential aged care for people. We need to make sure that the facility is actually designed to be like their home. Aging in your own community is a really important part of the model that an MPS allows you to do. So it means they don't have to leave their community, their town, their relatives, their friends. They can stay in an age where they should be, and that's in their local communities. So that is very different from a traditional hospital model because we're actually going all out to make this facility look like a home. The community is always made to feel welcome when they come through the doors. It's not as though it's a big, sterile environment.

MPS are developed and tailor-made to suit the local needs of their community, and in actual fact, they provide an integrated health community hub. So the MPS is used not only for inpatient services and the provision of aged care, but it's also used for a whole range of other health-related activities within the health service. That can range from enjoying a community garden through to participating with the community in gentle exercises through to caring for an acutely ill patient in an emergency department.

Yes, it's a great care facility, and being close to my son and his family. Most people that come in our doors, we know them, and it's like it's part of their home, really. Part of the strength of our model is to do home visits, and sometimes that's not possible, so we bring our clients into the hospital where they get care in a private and confidential way. They're quite happy to come here because they love the new MPS. I love the staff here as well. Everything's under one roof, and the fact that we can actually flex the beds to meet the needs of the day is what makes it work. So you can have an acute bed with a very sick patient in it that's recovering from an operation one day. The next day it might be a respite bed for a residential aged care patient from the community. So the fact that we can actually be responsive and adapting is what makes these services sustainable.

I'm really proud of multi-purpose services. I think they're a fantastic solution for every rural community. We've got nearly 20 multi-purpose services across the whole of our region. For every community, that looks different, and we commit to communities that we will design a service that's right for their community. So I think the multi-purpose services are a great solution, and every community should be excited to have one.