IT’S easy to take things for granted when they’ve been around for decades, but when it comes to the Royal Flying Doctor Service, you will be inspired by its workings today even more when you learn the story of its beginnings.

The first flight of a flying doctor, made in a single-engine, fabric-covered De Havilland biplane, was from Cloncurry to Julia Creek in 1928.

Today, the RFDS is the most comprehensive aeromedical organisation in the world. It has 21 bases throughout Australia and provides medical assistance to one patient every two minutes.

The RFDS is both the family doctor and emergency response team to the people of remote and rural Australia.

To put that in perspective while you’re visiting Charleville, the RFDS (Queensland Section) flew 6,702,697km last year; the Charleville base alone services about 622,000 square kilometres of southwest Queensland – extending from the New South Wales border to the Northern Territory and South Australian borders in the west and east to the Carnarvon Ranges.

Emergency response aircraft are equipped to provide airborne intensive care; and RFDS doctors, nurses and pilots are on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to be quickly on hand when people urgently need a doctor.

To thousands of people living in rural and remote Queensland the flying doctor is their family doctor. The Charleville base holds regular clinics at Birdsville, Windorah, Jundah, Stonehenge, Yaraka, Eromanga, Yowah, Thargomindah and Eulo. A number of health services are provided at these clinics including routine medical treatment, child and adolescent health care, women’s health care and mental health care.

The RFDS conducted thousands of patient consultations across the State last year with 40,379 patients attended to through clinics. Another 16,134 consultations were conducted by RFDS doctors over the telephone or radio giving people living in remote areas immediate advice. The RFDS provides and maintains medical chests which contain more than 90 medical items which are used in conjunction with instructions given by the RFDS doctor over the phone or radio.

The RFDS has seven bases that create an aero-medical network throughout the State. The bases are at Charleville, Mount Isa, Cairns, Townsville, Rockhampton, Bundaberg and Brisbane. A non-aeromedical base at Longreach specialises in mental health. The Queensland section employs more than 350 staff, including doctors, nurses, pilots, allied health, aviation support personnel and administration staff.

To learn more, visit the RFDS Charleville base Visitors’ Centre to see historic displays ranging from a pedal wireless to an early medicine chest. Souvenirs are available from the Outback Shop, which is open from 8.30am to 4.30pm on weekdays.