What do the flying doctors do?

The RFDS plays a vital role in the transporting of patients - not just in an emergency. Examples include the transfer of a patient from a regional hospital to a tertiary hospital, or an elderly person traveling from aged care for a specialist appointment.



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Filmed on location in and around Broken Hill, RFDS captures the beauty and brutality of Australia's vast centre where the doctors and the nurses, pilots and support staff of the Royal Flying Doctor Service negotiate the unique challenges of medical emergencies across some of the most inhospitable places in the ...

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On 15 May 1928, Flynn's dream became a reality when a long time supporter, H.V. McKay, left a large bequest for 'an aerial experiment'. This enabled Flynn to open the Australian Inland Mission Aerial Medical Service (later to be the RFDS).

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The first thing to know is that off-duty doctors and other medical professionals are not legally required to help if a medical emergency arises on an airplane; however, there may be an ethical duty to intervene, as described in a 2015 article in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

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The RFDS has 5 different planes that are used for aeromedical operations. These are the Pilatus PC-12 and PC-24 (used in SA/NT and WA), the King Air B350 C and B200 C (used in Qld, NSW, Victoria and Tasmania) and the new Beechcraft King Air 360CHW turboprop aircraft (used in Qld).

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The Presbyterian minister, the Reverend John Flynn, devoted his life to improving the welfare of Australians in the outback. In 1912 he contributed to the establishment of the Australian Inland Mission and, in 1928, the Aerial Medical Service.

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