FLYING DOCTORS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3831, 16 August 1927, Page 75

FLYING DOCTORS.

NEEDS OF INLAND AUSTRALIA. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, July 28. Visiting aviation experts, as well as our own commercial and military airmen, ha-c frequently emphasised how much the increasing use of aeroplanes means to Australia, with its long distances between isolated centres of inland settlement. An example of how flying is to help Australia is afforded in the recent announcement that through the co-operation of the British Medical Association, the Aus-

tralian Inland Mission, and the Federal and State Governments, a romantic and ad- 1 vanced system of giving medical aid to the great outback of Australia will probably be put into operation in the near future. When this system is complete six doctors with six aeroplanes will be waiting at their stations for messages by wireless and telegraph to aid the sick. There will not be a corner of the continent left uncared for. At present representatives of the Australian Inland Mission and a leading Melbourne doctor are touring the outback making ground arrangements. The British Medical Association has appointed another doctor to make what arrangements are necessary in Melbourne. lhe Federal Government will give a subsidy through the Defence Department bv way of a contribution towards the upkeep of the ’planes. The new flying doctors will not interfere in any way with the doctors already in practice. Wherever it is possible they will bring their patients within range of the doctors already there. They wilf make no charge for their attendance, and there will be no charge when the ’planes are used as ambulances. The loneliest stockman out on the inland plains can call a doctor and hate him arrive within a few hours. _ The shadowing terror of women, bearing their children removed from human aid, will he gone. It is the women for whom the scheme is mostly designed. Nowhere in the world has anything parallel to this been attempted. The doctors are to have that will cover two-thirds of the continent. They will have the co- ; operation of the I’ostmaster-eeneral. s Department. and there will be uireless stations at all the inland hospitals. There will be petrol supplies laid down in the out of the way corners of these hospitals districts, and each hospital will help to organise its own lines of communication with the doctors. The beginnings will probably be made in conjunction with the existing flying services. It is expected that through them, eventually, arrangements can be made to cover the whole of Australia. ... ~ The origin of the scheme hes in a talk the superintendent of the Inland Mission (Mr John Flvnn) had with the head of the Queensland Mail Service (Mr Fisch) in a country hotel one night about six years ago. Mr Fisch told Mr Flvnn how difficult it was to reach the sufferers, manv of whom the aeroplanes of his own service had brought to Brisbane hospitals because they could not stand the rough jolting of trains and cars. From that talk was born in Mr Flvnn’s brain tins scheme that promises a many sided development of Australian inland aieas.