Leroy Henderson was 23 when he lost control of an off-road buggy and almost severed his arm at the remote Packsaddle Roadhouse, 175 kilometres north of Broken Hill.
"I came a bit unstuck and rolled the buggy and pretty much amputated my arm on the spot; it was hanging by a piece of skin," he said.
"So it was pretty necessary to get me on a Flying Doctor plane straight away.
"I was very lucky … they were almost overhead when they got the call.
To the moon and back — 34 times a year
The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) sees about 340,000 patients a year, and emergency evacuations account for about 30 per cent of its work.
The service runs remote nurse, GP and dental clinics in some of the most far-flung corners of Australia and provides regular telehealth appointments with specialists.
Its fleet of 79 planes flies 30 million kilometres each year — the equivalent of 34 trips to the moon and back.
The RFDS has been receiving federal funding on four-year contracts, but a new deal in the budget will provide it with almost $1 billion over a decade.
"A 10-year platform of investment means that we can make much longer-term decisions and achieve much greater efficiency for every dollar that is invested in the Royal Flying Doctor Service," federal executive director Frank Quinlan said.
The new funding is a small annual increase to the existing budget, which also relies on $80m in annual public donations.
Mr Quinlan said one huge cost for the charity had recently surged.
"Fuel prices are a very big part of our service. We spend in excess of $30 million a year on fuel to fly those 30 million kilometres," he said.
Mr Quinlan said the 10-year funding deal would allow the RFDS to negotiate longer-term contracts to help keep fuel price shocks to a minimum.
"Most importantly it gives us a secure platform for investing in people and equipment we need over that time to deliver healthcare services to people living in some of the most remote parts of the world," he said.
Announcement not political, Minister says
Federal Regional Health Minister David Gillespie said the deal would give the RFDS and the people who relied on it more certainty.
He said the pandemic had highlighted the value of the service.
"They came to rural and remote Australia's rescue with delivering almost 80,000 vaccines in the most far-flung parts of the country," Dr Gillespie said.
The RFDS is a critical service in many parts of Australia, including regional Queensland, the Northern Territory and Tasmania. Many of those areas are in seats the federal Coalition needs the support of to win the upcoming election.
Dr Gillespie announced earlier this week the budget would include $4m to increase the number of specialist doctors in the bush, as well as a $700m program to help with medical training in the regions.
But he denied there were any political calculations in the funding announcement.
"No, that's that's downgrading it," Dr Gillespie said.
"This is a long-term strategic agreement that they requested and I've happily made sure that that it's come into place."
Mr Henderson said he thought the announcement would "absolutely" be a vote changer in the bush.
"I think everybody that knows the Flying Doctor and has used that at some point in their life, a lot of these stations and country towns, they rely on the Flying Doctor so it'd be a big vote-changer really," he said.
