This time around I thought I'd write about an incredible federally-funded program I learned about in Australia called the Royal Flying Doctors Service. The Service provides aero-medical emergency and primary care assistance to Australians living, and traveling, in the remote lands of the outback, many of whom make emergency calls from satellite radios provided by the Flying Doctors Service. They fly to over 660 patients per day and span an area equal in size to Western Europe.
One of the most impressive features of the Service is its focus on preventative services. Doctors, flight nurses, and other practitioners staff over 30 clinics spanning remote Australia (several thousand kilometers) offering vaccinations, checkups, and dental exams. They also provide radio or telephone consultative services 24 hours a day, which are available for emergency or routine health concerns. One of my favorite components of the program is that they extensively provide 3500 "medical chests" to isolated properties, indigenous communities, cattle stations, etc. These chests contain numerous drugs and supplies with which patients can treat themselves with telephone assistance from a nurse or doctor. They even hold regular field days to educate children and adults on how to incorporate health promotion in their everyday lives.
I toured their Central Operations office while in central Australia and it's like a well oiled machine. Their quality metrics are excellent and they have an impressive safety record. I wonder if we can use some of the values and goals of the Royal Flying Doctors Service in some of our domestic health policy considerations. We may not need airplanes to reach our remote, immigrant, or less educated populations, but I think we can learn a lot.
If you want to read about this some more, here is the site - www.flyingdoctor.net
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2 comments:
I have heard about this program before - not sure if it was while I was in Australia also, but thanks for sending more information about it.
Do you know how it's funded because it definitely sounds like a good model that the US could learn a lot from if we want to.
Thanks for the post!
It's partially federally funded, but also relies on private and corporate donations. And the government funding does not cover Fly Around Clinics and indigenous programs that are so important.
Americans probably don't need airplanes to reach our remote populations, migrant workers, or the homeless, but we could use this as a model for reaching the "hard to reach." Mobile clinics have the right idea, but we should do more culturally appropriate preventative care. How about providing some of these medical chests to those that are hard to reach? Or 24 hour telephone help lines to speak to a qualified clinician who can teach you how to self-treat? At least this could save the expense of a doctor appointment, ambulance ride, or even an unnecessary hospitalization.
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