The Royal Doctor Service Today
Today the RFDS operates from 22 bases strategically located around Australia with a presence in most capital cities. The RFDS has expanded its traditional role to deliver a broad range of primary and preventative health care services to rural and remote communities. The RFDS also delivers critical support to those who live in urban centres: this includes the regular transfer of patients to interstate hospitals for life-saving surgery such as organ transplant and heart surgery on newborn babies.
The RFDS provides the finest care to more than 300,000 Australians each year – that’s one person every two minutes.
Alice Springs Base
The Alice Springs Base provides 24-hour primary emergency retrievals and inter-hospital transfers by our team of pilots, flight nurses and engineers. It serves an area of approximately 1.25 million square kilometres from Marla in Northern South Australia to Newcastle Waters in the Northern Territory, and beyond the border regions of Western Australia and Queensland.
In Alice Springs, the RFDS also operates an award-winning Tourist Facility which attracts visitors from all over the world. The Tourist Facility – the most significant RFDS tourist attraction in Australia – makes an important financial contribution to the Capital Raising Program, whilst also helping increase awareness and understanding of the RFDS around the globe.
The RFDS has provided aero-medical services to the communities of Central Australia for more than 70 years.
Central Operations
RFDS Central Operations provide aero-medical emergency, primary and preventive healthcare services across more than 2.3 million square kilometres covering South Australia, the southern half of the Northern Territory and, on occasions, areas within Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales.
3 aero-medical bases (Adelaide, Port Augusta & Alice Springs)
3 primary healthcare facilities (Andamooka, Marla and Marree)
17 aircraft
205 staff
Activity 2016/2017
51,231 patient contacts, including;
- 9,296 primary (remote) evacuations and inter-hospital transfers
- 5,436 tele-health consultations
- 7,660 mental health consultations
Flew 5.3 million kilometres
Landed 16,010 times