At Parliament House on 18 March 2026, the Royal Flying Doctor Service commemorated nine decades of service to 1.8 million people across 80 locations in rural and remote NSW and appealed to keep the Flying Doctor flying.
Greg Sam, CEO RFDS (South Eastern Section) spoke of the deep sense of responsibility the RFDS has for the communities it serves – especially those that are socioeconomically disadvantaged and a very long way away from Macquarie Street when addressing the Premier, the Hon. Chris Minns MP, the Health Minister, the Hon. Ryan Park MP, the Member for Barwon, Roy Butler, the Member for Wagga Wagga Dr Joe McGirr, and many other Members of Parliament.
Rural and remote communities across NSW rely on us for vital, aeromedical and community-based lifesaving healthcare 24/7. We are often their only contact with the healthcare system, particularly in Western and Far Western NSW. Our relationships and connections with these communities are deep and longstanding. They trust us.
RFDSSE CEO, Greg SamThe social and economic benefit, or social dividend, that the RFDS aeromedical service delivers to NSW is substantial. In avoided mortality and morbidity alone, the present value over 10 years of this benefit was conservatively estimated at $11b by Marsden Jacob Associates in their Early Insights Report: March 2026.
Released on 18 March 2026, this report confirms that the communities the RFDS serves in NSW’s West and Far West exist in thin or absent markets. They:
- have limited or no access to alternative healthcare services;
- experience entrenched socio-economic disadvantage; and
- have poor health outcomes, including elevated rates of preventable hospitalisation and avoidable early death.
Marsden Jacob’s Early Insights Report finds that the RFDS plays a critical role in addressing market failure and ensuring equitable access to emergency healthcare throughout NSW.
It demonstrates the significant value NSW derives from the RFDS’s presence in rural and remote communities and clearly illustrates how marginal improvements in access, timeliness and clinical capability can deliver large social and economic returns.
The report finds that small investments in organisations, such as RFDS, can deliver disproportionately large social and economic returns.
Since its beginnings in Broken Hill in 1936, the Royal Flying Doctor Service has served as a critical lifeline for people who live in the state's most remote locations. The Royal Flying Doctor Service takes on a huge burden delivering high-quality and reliable healthcare to the members of our community who are farming, mining and living in our most isolated locations, which are often very far from a medical centre, hospital or chemist.
Premier, the Hon. Chris Minns MP
The Royal Flying Doctor Service is one of Australia’s most trusted and admired institutions, which embodies a simple idea – that where you live should never determine whether you are able to receive timely, high-quality healthcare. My congratulations to the staff at Royal Flying Doctor Service NSW on 90 extraordinary years. Here’s to many more years of service and success providing peace of mind to families in rural and remote areas that help is never far away.
Minister for Health, the Hon. Ryan Park MP
So many reviews and reports have confirmed what we already know on the ground in Western NSW – that in rural NSW, there are simply not enough healthcare services. Every one of us in Western NSW knows the true pain that a lack of healthcare services brings – it is our loved ones who are being hospitalised far from home or dying early and unnecessarily. It’s our communities paying the price, they should not be left behind. People in the bush deserve better access to healthcare. It has been shown that investment in organisations like the RFDS delivers huge benefits for rural and remote communities and NSW’s health system.
Roy Butler MP, Member for BarwonIn addition, to mark RFDS’s 90th anniversary of serving the people of NSW from their Broken Hill and Dubbo bases and honour the many thousands of volunteers that support the RFDS, three commemorative remote airstrip flares started their journey from Parliament House, where they were launched by Premier Chris Minns, to Broken Hill.
These flares, named Hope, Heart and Trust, are wrapped in indigenous artwork symbolising hope over the horizon and the link between the RFDS, healthcare, community and connection across Country.
The flares will be stopping at RFDS service towns across NSW on their way to arrive in Broken Hill in time for the official 90th RFDS celebration in May of this year.
