The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) in WA has increased its frontline workforce by nearly 20 per cent in preparation for the anticipated spread of COVID-19 throughout the state.
Since February 2020, the RFDS has transported 141 remote and rural WA patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19.
Rebecca Tomkinson, the chief executive officer for the RFDS in WA, said the organisation had learnt the importance of being prepared from the service's experience in other states.
"We know that as the omicron variant comes through the West Australian community we will be working more closely with COVID-19 patients," she said.
"In preparation for that, we have been revising our operating model and our systems.
"We are preparing our teams, we're working through different scenarios, we're working closely in partnership with all of the health care community to be able to deliver the service that we need to."
More aircraft to respond to calls
Ms Tomkinson said the organisation had also been investing in its fleet with four additional aircraft.
"This brings the total number of aircraft in our fleet to 22 — the largest RFDS fleet in Australia [and] the biggest aero medical fleet that Western Australia has ever had," she said.
RFDS general manager for operations Damien Witham said aircraft were in a constant state of preparedness.
"For high priority patients, it's our aim to be airborne within 60 minutes," he said.
"That includes flight planning preparation, getting all the equipment [and], all the medical supplies on board the aircraft."
Aircraft decontamination
Mr Witham said it took 45 to 60 minutes to clean an aircraft after transferring a patient with COVID-19.
"We have an external member overseeing the decontamination process [of the aircraft], it's then quarantined for a set period of time before it's released back to service and safe to fly again," he said.
Mr Witham said the RFDS had robust protocols in place to ensure the network was covered when an aircraft was temporarily unavailable.
Kieran Hennelly is the general manager for clinical operations and said a large portion of the RFDS processes were designed to make sure they did not make things worse and avoided spreading COVID-19 further.
"An example of that would be the rapid antigen tests, which we will be doing for each movement into a remote area.
"That's particularly important if we're going into what we would call 'COVID-naive communities' particularly but not exclusively related to Aboriginal communities."
Flying vaccination service
In March 2021, the RFDS commenced a program to help those living in the outback get vaccinated.
Since then, the RFDS has administered vaccinations to more than 10,000 people across WA.
Dr Hennelly said the organisation implemented a plan almost immediately to safely transport patients.
"It resulted in a reduction in our efficiency early on [but] what we have been doing in recent weeks and months is making sure our processes are as efficient as they can be," he said.
"It's all about integration with the rest of the health care service. We're a small part of health but I would argue that we're quite a pivotal one."
