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The Flying Doctors
While
driving across the Outback during the past week, I’ve thought a lot about how
people here have adapted to this dry and desolate environment.
It’s apparent in little things that, at first glance, seem a bit odd
such as huge tanks that collect rainwater from the rooftops to use for drinking,
the telephone poles made out of iron instead of wood, and the 150-foot long
Road Trains. But what about
services like health-care and education? Again,
the Outback is a unique area so it’s no surprise that those resourceful Australians have
developed unique solutions.
Back
in 1928, an Australian reverend named John Flynn created The Royal Flying Doctors
Service (RFDS) to provide free medical services for people living in isolated
areas of the Outback. The RFDS is still operating and each day, RFDS planes criss-cross
Australia performing emergency medical services as well as scheduled clinics,
serving folks who live in remote cattle stations, roadhouses, and in Aboriginal
communities, most of whom are hundred of miles from the nearest hospital.
Not only do these doctors make house calls, but they often fly over 500
miles in the process… not even Dominos can top that kind of service.
From
a single plane and pilot in 1928, the RFDS has grown to a staff today of about
500, operating 40 planes from 20 bases around Australia, including the base that
I visited in Alice Springs. Each year, the RFDS flies over 10 million miles and performs
about 24,000 aerial evacuations, all at no charge to the patients.
It’s a non-profit organization that operates almost solely on private
donations, which explains the numerous signs that I’d seen during the past few
weeks in small towns announcing RFDS benefit raffles and dances.
Australians are quite proud of the RFDS and rightly so. More
information on the Royal Flying Doctor Service is available at
www.rfds.org.au.
By
the way, while I was in the RFDS Gift Shop, I spotted a cute stuffed bear
wearing goggles and a leather RFDS flight jacket.
“Waldo” (whom I named after Robert Redford's pilot character, Waldo
Pepper) is now propped up on the Camry’s back seat and greets everyone who
passes by with a furry wave.
Above
left: The Royal Flying
Doctors Service building in
Alice Springs.
Above
center: Our nurse-guide telling us about the RFDS.
Above
right: The RFDS Operations
Center.
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