Flying Doctor soars to new record

With more than 90 years’ history, Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) is well known for its emergency rescues and patient transports.

For RFDS Victoria, the majority of those transports are undertaken by road, serviced by more than 100 vehicles operating out of 24 bases across Victoria and NSW.

This service, known as Mobile Patient Care (MPC), provides a range of transport options for patients, including admission, discharge, medical appointments and inter-facility transfers across hospitals, rehabilitation facilities, specialist medical services and nursing and retirement homes. 

In addition to MPC’s vehicle fleet, this service also features a Beechcraft twin-turboprop aircraft, which is stationed at the heritage-listed Hangar 85 at Essendon Fields Airport.

MPC’s aeromedical service transfers 35 patients on average per month. However, this past March was its busiest month on record since the service begun, with 63 patients transferred to such destinations as Mildura, Mount Gambier, Albury, Wagga Wagga, Hobart and Adelaide. Given that the service currently only operates on weekdays, this equates to more than three patients per day.

RFDS Essendon Flight Coordinators Eva Files and Phil Gelling put these increased numbers down to successful working partnerships with Air Ambulance Victoria and RFDS Victoria’s associated rural health services. Additionally, the introduction of our new B350 aircraft has also contributed to this figure, thanks to an increased weight and fuel capacity compared to a B200 aircraft.

This impressive result is of course also thanks to the dedication and commitment of our MPC team members. With this winning combination of great people and strong partnerships – not to mention future plans in the works – we could be looking at a significant increase in the number of air transports we perform each and every month.