Australia’s famed Flying Doctor service has been the focus of a delegation of Russian government officials, who visited the country to learn more about rural medivac services in in the Antipodean state.
The Russian officials visited Sydney and Brisbane for an insight into fixed-wing operations at the Royal Flying Doctor Service and Careflight. They were briefed on the medivac system in NSW including remote care, plane, helicopter and road transport, patient transfers between hospitals and emergency evacuations.
Austrade’s Moscow-based Senior Trade Commissioner, Dan Tebbutt said:
“The Australian medivac model is considered a world benchmark and the RFDS is well known globally in aviation and aero-medical sectors.
“This visit gave Russian officials an insight into Australia’s expertise and provided greater awareness of the structure and funding of the Australian medivac model.
“Australia is well placed to provide services and products for the planned Russian air medivac system and this visit could result in contracts for Australian companies once the Russian medivac system is up and running..”
The Russian Ministries now plan to develop an air medivac strategy for presentation to their Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in 2011.
Photos courtesy of RFDS.