The RFDS in SA/NT
GP & Nurse Clinics
For Dave and Megan Henderson a visit from the Flying Doctor means the difference between taking precious time off, often an entire day or two, to go to town to see the doctor.
The Royal Flying Doctor Services provides assistance to around 100 patients every day in South Australia and the lower half of the Northern Territory most of whom
attend fly-in GP, Nurse or allied health clinics to small communities, mines or station homesteads.
"If we didn't have the RFDS come to us we'd need to add a visit to the doctor or dentist to all of the other
jobs for the next time we go to town in Port Augusta," Megan Henderson says.
That means a road trip of up five to six hours for the Hendersons who run 20,000 sheep and 300 cattle on Mount Vivian and Kokatha stations they manage with their son Will.
"One of the really good things is that we have the same doctors come to visit, there's a continuity of service from the RFDS," Megan says.
"It's also great having a woman doctor; we don't always have that choice out here."
RFDS SA/NT conducted 2,615 GP fly-in clinics in 2015/16 and attended to 2,331 patients, many of them station people just like the Hendersons. Like people living in the city, the RFDS service means they have their own community doctors and nurses.
A typical clinic will every fortnight take a health team of a doctor, a community health nurse, and often a mental health nurse, to isolated communities and stations along the Birdsville Track, the Gawler Ranges, the North West Pastoral district in SA and the lower half of the NT.
From immunisations, health checkups, referrals or management of chronic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular illness general lifestyle issues, the RFDS clinics mean there is regular medical assistance when
needed for people living and working remote Australia.
RFDS Port Augusta Primary Health Care Service
This clinic is available to all resident living, working and travelling in remote South Australia, including districts of the Flinders Ranges, Gawler Ranges, Birsdville Track and Far North, and the communities of Yalata and Oak Valley.
Operating form the RFDS Port Augusta Base, the RFDS Primary health Care Service offers remote patients a complete range of primary health care services.
To book an appointment call (08) 8648 9500 during office hours or email: clinicbooking@flyingdoctor.net
If you require urgent medical assistance, call 1800 RFDS SA (1800 733 772) and ask to speak to the on-call RFDS Doctor
For more information about the service click here.
