Emergency and Transport Services
All RFDS bases with aircraft in Australia provide emergency air transport services. These can be broadly categorized as primary response or secondary (interhospital) transport.
Primary Response
A primary response occurs when a person becomes seriously ill or injured and requires evacuation by air from a location without medical facilities to the nearest hospital infrastructure. For a primary response, the RFDS may fly to an isolated property, such as a station, mine site, road house or small community, to a remote health facility, or to an accident site itself. The RFDS provides this service 24 hours a day to over 80% of the Australian continent.
Inter-hospital Transfers
Inter-hospital transfer involves the aeromedical transport of patients between hospital facilities. This usually occurs when patients with serious illness or injury require medical retrieval to a large regional or tertiary centre for definitive care.
Aircraft for Emergency and Transport Work
Beechcraft King Air and Pilatus PC 12 aircraft are used for emergency and transport work. All aircraft are medically configured to resemble mini intensive care units, and are fully outfitted with state-of-the-art medical equipment. They are capable of speeds of up to 500 kilometres per hour with a range of 1,500 kilometres. They are pressurised, enabling patients to be flown at the equivalent of sea level, which is essential for the treatment of serious injuries.
RFDS nationally conducts primary responses or interhospital transfers for over 36,000 patients per year to definitive hospital and/or specialist care. At all bases, aircraft are available to respond to calls 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Aircraft are staffed with a pilot, flight nurse and doctor (depending on the case).