Flying Doctors- October 2009

The Poche Centre for Indigenous Health:

A day with the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia

Sydney Medical School Student, Stage 3

On October 23rd, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to spend the day with the Flying Doctors of Australia. The day was organized by the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, which runs health clinics in remote areas of New South Wales, and through our faculty also organizes for medical students to accompany specialist teams for the day. “The clinics transport health and medical specialists to Bourke and Brewarrina, where they fill gaps in local health services and provide specialist care in areas of highest need.”
I thought I’d write a little bit about my day with the team to help encourage other medical students to apply for the opportunity. It is a great way to learn some medicine, visit outback Australia, meet interesting people and patients, and understand the healthcare needs of the rural and remote areas of New South Wales.
My Day

I arrived at the passenger terminal at the Bankstown Airport at about 6:30am on Friday morning. There were two pilots preparing to leave: one for us heading to Brewarrina, and the other taking police and correctional officers to transfer prisoners from various rural areas back to Sydney. I was glad to be on the plane with the flying doctors.

I met Professor Len, (who I later found out was not only a cardiologist, but the Head of Cardiology at Concord Hospital!), Keren (the sonographer), and John, who was our pilot for the day. We boarded a tiny little plane with only 2 steps to get in and 5 seats inside. The trip out was surprisingly clear, smooth and comfortable and we arrived at the Brewarrina ‘airport’ (single landing strip in the middle of nowhere) about 2 hours later.

When we arrived in Bre there was a car waiting to bring us to the hospital. I couldn’t believe the dry heat (already at 9am) and the huge amount of flies, ants and birds around. Luckily, we didn’t see any snakes, but heard stories from the driver about giant snakes chasing kids around the town!

The hospital was very small, clean, and nice, and luckily, was also air-conditioned. It serviced the town of Brewarrina (population of about 1,500), as well as a small Aboriginal town 100km away (with a population of 100).
After a quick breakfast in the tea room we started seeing patients. Professor Len and Keren were very nice and seemed keen to teach. I spent most of my time seeing patients with Professor Len, but also got the chance to see a few echocardiograms being done. I think I managed to see almost as many clinical signs in one day, than I did during my four-week cardiology rotation at my hospital in Sydney! It was a very interesting learning experience, and was also nice to see that the patients were very appreciative of Professor Len’s expertise and advice.

Most of the patients we saw had very complicated medical histories and lots of co-morbidities. One patient, who was in his mid-thirties, had cardiac bypass surgery at age 29 and just recently had a defibrillator inserted. Another patient had very obvious signs of heart failure, despite saying several times that he still ‘felt good in himself’. I think almost every patient we saw had diabetes and 8 out of the 10 patients we saw were Aboriginal.

During lunch I had a bit of time to walk around the town. It was incredibly hot and dry and felt like a ghost town. There were hardly any cars around, and even less people! The streets were wide and quiet and there was red sand everywhere.

We ending up leaving Brewarrina in a bit of a rush at the end of the day and headed to Bourke to get some fuel and pick up another passenger. The flight to Bourke was not quite as enjoyable as our morning trip. It was boiling hot and extremely bumpy! We all sat there quietly sweating buckets, keeping an eye on the horizon, and trying not to think about getting sick.
After the short stop in Bourke, we headed back to Sydney. The rest of the flight was much smoother and uneventful, and as much I as enjoyed my day, I was happy to be back in the city.

As an international student from Canada, I was especially thankful for this opportunity and I found the experience particularly interesting. It was an amazing way to enrich my medical knowledge, experience a day in the life of an ‘Australian flying doctor’, see a part of Australia that I would have never been able to see otherwise, and learn about some history and culture of the country.