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Who can use the Royal Flying Doctor service?

The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) works to provide emergency medical and primary health care services to anyone who lives, works or travels in rural and remote Australia.



The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) of Australia is available to anyone who lives, works, or travels in rural and remote Australia. While its primary mission is to serve the roughly 7 million Australians residing in isolated areas where traditional hospital access is limited, the service is not restricted by citizenship or residency status; if a tourist or traveler in the Australian Outback suffers a medical emergency, they are eligible for the same lifesaving care. The RFDS provides a wide spectrum of services, ranging from 24-hour aeromedical emergency evacuations for accidents and heart attacks to primary healthcare services like fly-in fly-out GP clinics, dental care, and mental health support. They also handle non-emergency patient transfers, such as moving an elderly patient from a remote town to a city specialist. The service is largely funded by the Australian government and public donations, ensuring that essential healthcare is a right for anyone within its 7.69 million square kilometer "waiting room," regardless of how remote their location may be.

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See below for details on each plane. The RFDS national fleet is 81 planes strong and is growing each year.

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The RFDS base at Bankstown began operations in July 1994. Bankstown Base is the home of the Rural Aerial Health Service (RAHS) which the RFDS operates on behalf of NSW Health. While administration and coordination of RAHS flights takes place at the Dubbo Base, the majority of flights are made from Bankstown.

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The popular series ran for nine seasons and was successfully screened internationally. It was initially a 1985 mini-series based in the fictional outback town of Cooper's Crossing (set in the real life town of Minyip in north-western rural Victoria).

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In an Australian first for the Flying Doctor, the five-year partnership will integrate two EC-145 helicopters into the RFDS fleet.

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Watch RFDS Royal Flying Doctor Service, Season 1 | Prime Video.

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