Royal+Flying+Doctor+Service



by Jos Hill The Royal Flying Doctor Service was formed in 1928 by John Flynn. It was formed with the idea of providing quick and good health care for people living in remote areas of Australia. Today the RFDS is heavily relied upon to provide health care for people living and working on outback stations and people who would ordinarily be a long way from medical help.

__ History __ Reverand John Flynn, the founding father of the RFDS was asked first by the Presbyterian church of Victoria to look at the needs of people in the outback and in 1928 he suggested the idea of an aerial medical service it was first based in Cloncurry Queensland and later became the RFDS. Flynn's missionary work involved the establishment of hospitals in bush communities. This, however, did not help those who lived far from any major community. By the 1950s, the RFDS was acknowledged by former Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies as “perhaps the single greatest contribution to the effective settlement of the far distant country that we have witnessed in our time.”

 Until the 1960s, the Service rarely owned their own aircraft. They used contractors to provide aircraft, pilots and servicing. They progressively began to purchase their own aircraft and employ their own pilots and engineers.

Today, the RFDS own a fleet of 61 fully instrumented aircraft with the very latest in navigation technology. They operate 21 bases across Australia. Their pilots annually fly the equivalent of 25 round trips to the moon and their doctors and flight nurses are responsible for the care of over 270,000 patients. They've come a long way from that first flight in 1928 which saw the Flying Doctor airborne at last.

bibliography http://www.flyingdoctor.org.au/About-Us/Our-History/The-John-Flynn-Story/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Flying_Doctor_Service_of_Australia http://www.flyingdoctor.org.au/ http://www.flyingdoctor.org.au/About-Us/Our-History/