A dry needle in a haystack: Meet our first Flying Physio
To Bryan and Coorabie residents... the RFDS helps keep them working on the land.
Physiotherapy is the latest service to be added to the RFDS Community Health team, which already offers specialist nursing, oral health, mental health, midwifery, occupational therapy and dietetic services to patients across outback South Australia.
As the RFDS’s first ever ‘Flying Physio’, Aled Francis has helped build the service from the ground up."We’re introducing physiotherapy to people who have never had access before, so the expectations are huge,” he said.
“Here in the outback, a lot of people are experiencing chronic or complex health issues and that’s the biggest challenge. They want to get better straight away and we try to match these expectations as much as we can.”
Over the last 12 months, the RFDS has developed a regular fly-in fly-out physiotherapy service visiting 11 locations and providing more than 580 patients. Aled packs his own massage table, dry needles and remedial equipment for each visit.
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