flying doctor service

flying doctor service, method for supplying medical service by airplane to areas where doctors are few and communications difficult. The plan for the first service of this type was conceived in 1912 by the Rev. John Flynn, superintendent of the Australian Inland Mission of the Presbyterian Church. Flynn’s plan came to fruition in May 1928, when the first base of what is now the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia began operating at Cloncurry, Queensland, under Dr. K. St. Vincent Welch. An Adelaide electrical engineer, A.H. Traeger, developed a low-powered, portable, pedal-driven, Morse radio transmitter-receiver with a range of 300 miles. This transceiver, with the use of airplanes, made possible a system of regular long-distance medical consultations and the flying of doctors to patients in emergencies.

More than a dozen bases, run by state branches, came to cover two-thirds of the Australian continent and part of Tasmania. The Australian state governments contribute one-third of the finances; the rest is derived from voluntary and outpost subscriptions and message charges. The flying doctor service is free.

Other parts of the world regularly use aircraft for the assistance of the isolated sick. In Canada the Saskatchewan Air Ambulance Service was inaugurated in 1947. Newfoundland operates from the International Grenfell Association at St. Anthony an air ambulance service, likewise begun in 1947, covering northern Newfoundland and Labrador. The Royal Canadian Air Force operates a search and rescue service for Eskimos and Indians in the Arctic.

In East Africa the African Medical and Research Foundation, established in 1957 by joint British and American enterprise, was enabled in 1961 to begin a flying doctor service with a single airplane provided by private United States benefaction. In collaboration with this body, the Flying Doctor Service of Africa, Ltd., registered in the United Kingdom, planned a pilot scheme to be based at Gusau, northern Nigeria.