Flying health squads descend on regional areas
FLYING squads of psychologists and dentists will be sent to the bush under an $84 million Turnbull Government budget plan to improve the health of Australians outside cities.
The iconic Royal Flying Doctor Service will receive the funding boost, which will significantly expand help for at-risk Australians.
The national plan, announced yesterday by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in Broken Hill, comes as some farmers and former mining workers struggle with mental health issues amid ongoing drought and unemployment.
The move is also significant for Queensland, which historically has high levels of tooth decay – especially in children – because councils for decades have refused to add fluoride to water supplies.
While the RFDS already provides mental health and dental services in Queensland, the cash injection will pay for more services.
Mr Turnbull said the Government had granted $327 million to the RFDS, but the $84 million was new money.
“(It) will put more psychologists and mental health nurses on the ground in areas where there are currently few or no services,” Mr Turnbull said.
“The Royal Flying Doctor Service is one of the largest and most comprehensive aeromedical organisations in the world and this year celebrates its 90th birthday.
“That’s 90 years of providing care to Australians living in some of the nation’s most remote areas, often in the most challenging circumstances. Ninety years of changing lives. Ninety years of saving lives.
RFDS chief executive Dr Martin Laverty said the organisation last year cared for 335,000 people in the air, on ground or telehealth.