In response to a recommendation of the Aged Care Taskforce Final Report, the Department of Health and Aged Care is reviewing the appropriateness of the Modified Monash Model as the primary tool to allocate funding and support in aged care.
The department has announced 17 locations are being reclassified as more remote.
The Modified Monash Model classifies locations as the following:
- metropolitan – MM1
- regional – MM2
- large Rural Town – MM3
- medium Rural Town – MM4
- small Rural Town – MM5
- remote – MM6
- very remote – MM7
There are seven metropolitan locations that will be reclassified as regional:
- Mulgoa, NSW
- Murwillumbah, NSW
- Wallacia, NSW
- Wallalong, NSW
- Jacobs Well, QLD
- Hopetoun Park, VIC
- Sutton, NSW
Myrniong in Victoria will be reclassified from regional to large rural town and Toongabbie, Victoria, will be reclassified as a small rural town from a large rural town.
Stanthorpe in Queensland will be reclassified from a medium rural town to a small rural town, as will Woodend in Victoria.
These three locations being reclassified as remote from small rural towns:
- Hopetoun, VIC
- Green Head, WA
- Leeman, WA
These three being reclassified as very remote from remote:
- Bourke, NSW
- Lamb Island, QLD
- Streaky Bay, SA
The updated MMM categories will be applied in phases across all aged care programs and will have flow-on implications for distribution priority area status.
The review will continue to explore:
- how the MMM system is used in aged care
- any advantages and disadvantages of the system for aged care
- factors and conditions, including remoteness, that influence aged care service delivery in regional, rural and remote locations
- options for the ongoing use of the MMM for aged care.
It will be conducted over two phases – scoping and consultation and reporting.
The scoping phase was recently completed and saw a stocktake of care programs using the MMM, international consultations and targeted consultations with aged care providers, local councils and government, local health services, Primary Health Networks, and not-for-profit organisations in Kalgoorlie, Broken Hill and Tamworth.
The consultation and reporting phase is currently underway and is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.
It will involve wider consultation and aims to help the department better understand what people think about the MMM to support aged care service delivery and what is important when delivering aged care services in regional rural and remote locations.
A detailed look at the review of the remoteness classification system can be found here.
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