24 hours a day, seven days a week RFDS doctors provide a telephone medical consultation service to people living, working and travelling throughout rural and remote South Eastern Australia.
Where once Alfred Traeger’s pedal radio solved the vital need for communication between remote properties and the Flying Doctor, almost all remote consultations are now conducted over the phone.
Over the last year the SE Section conducted 4,147 telehealth consultations.
Diagnosis: where does it hurt?
Consulting from a distance is a challenging task requiring a high degree of communication and medical skill, and our doctors are well equipped for this challenge. With the help of our Where does it hurt? body chart, patients in isolated areas are able to explain their medical condition with greater clarity and precision to the consulting doctor. Our doctors are then able to prescribe medicine held in one of 3,500 medical chests provided by the RFDS across Australia.