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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-05-15 Daily Xml
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Ministerial Statement

Royal Flying Doctor Service

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:17): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: I rise to mark two milestones of the Royal Flying Doctor Service: today is its birthday, 90 years to the day since the Reverend John Flynn proclaimed his aerial medical service on 15 May 1928; and Thursday is its anniversary, 90 years to the day since the inaugural flight of the service in outback Queensland on 17 May 1928. Over the 90 years since, the Royal Flying Doctor Service has become Australia's most reputable charity and an outstanding example of industry leadership.

The RFDS remains the lifeline to outback communities and, in more recent times, has become the trusted provider of 24/7 emergency evacuations of critically ill patients from our state's regional hospitals to our major metropolitan hospitals for life-saving and specialist care. Its founder, the Reverend John Flynn, once said, 'If you start something worthwhile nothing can stop it.'

Back in 1928, in its first year of service with one aircraft, John Flynn's flying doctor scheme provided medical assistance to 255 patients, the equivalent of someone every 1½ days. Today, with the nation's third largest fleet, the Royal Flying Doctor Service provides emergency aeromedical and essential primary healthcare services to more than 300,000 patients every year, the equivalent of someone every two minutes.

In our own state, the RFDS provides quality care to a South Australian every 10 minutes. Every 10 minutes the flying doctor will be delivering:

an aeromedical retrieval of the sick or injured from an outback location; or

a primary healthcare consultation during a remote fly-in GP clinic; or

the aeromedical transfer of a patient from a country hospital to a major Adelaide hospital; or

a face-to-face mental health consultation in a remote community; or

an interstate transfer of a patient for life-saving surgery, such as an organ transplant; or

in situ primary care by remote area nurses residing in outback communities; or

a GP consult to a patient via telephone with a holder of a RFDS medical chest; or

dental treatment and oral health education in a remote community.

The RFDS has, deservedly, earned the trust of the government and the community alike due to its proven track record of delivering the finest aeromedical and primary health care to the furthest corners of our state.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service is the South Australian government's preferred provider of fixed-wing interhospital transfer and aeromedical retrieval services. It is also a key partner of primary healthcare services to outback communities via its fly-in health clinic teams from Port Augusta base and its remote nurse outposts located at Marree, Andamooka and Marla. The RFDS is investing heavily in delivering care in the next 90 years and recently constructed a world-class aeromedical facility at Adelaide Airport and the order, pending delivery, of the RFDS PC 24 jet will soon be South Australia's first purpose-built aeromedical jet.

I think it is appropriate to recognise that, whilst the first buds of the RFDS service were in Queensland, its roots are in South Australia. The Reverend John Flynn, the founder of RFDS, commenced his spiritual, social and medical duties at the Smith of Dunesk mission at Beltana, soon after he was ordained as a minister of the Presbyterian Church on 24 January 1911 at Scots Church (not far from here). At Beltana, he witnessed firsthand the rigours of outback life and the lack of medical care available to inland residents and travellers.

In 1917, Flynn received an inspirational letter from Lieutenant Clifford Peel of Robe, a young airman and war hero, who suggested the use of aircraft to take medical help to the outback. After a decade of campaigning for an aeromedical service as a 'mantle of safety' for the people of the bush, his vision became a reality when industrialist Hugh Victor McKay left a large bequest to fund Flynn for his aerial experiment for one year.

Flynn had a doctor, a pilot and a plane, but he lacked the communication technology to deliver services efficiently. Flynn called on the innovative mind of Alfred Traeger of Adelaide, who overcame this barrier by inventing a pedal-operated generator to power a radio receiver. By 1929, people living in isolation were able to call the flying doctor to assist in an emergency, and later the School of the Air was established using the flying doctor network. On behalf of all South Australians, I offer congratulations and thanks to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

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