Twenty-four-hour emergency medical service to people spread over an area of 7.69 million square kilometres – that’s a very big waiting room! Keith Morgan reports on the new RFDS training facility in Dubbo.
An Australian icon, the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) first flew in 1928. The vision of founder (the Reverend) John Flynn was to create a “mantle of safety” for those in remote areas of outback Australia. Leased from Qantas for two shillings a mile, a de Havilland biplane made 50 flights and treated 225 people in that first year of RFDS operation.
The not-for-profit RFDS today is one of the largest and most comprehensive aeromedical organisations in the world. In the 2018-19 financial year, RFDS assisted 370,706 people through clinics, telehealth, aeromedical and non-emergency road transport. It conducted 21,323 nurses, GP and dental clinics and flew 27,286,414 million kilometres in a fleet of 77 aircraft.
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