Western Operations

The RFDS Western Operations role in provision of Primary Health Care is equally as important as its role in Retrieval and Emergency medicine.

In many rural and very remote areas of Western Australia, the RFDS is the sole provider of health care.

There are a number of facets to our Primary Health Care service, including our structured General Practice at Meekatharra, remote clinics carried out by our doctors at all bases, the Medical Chest service, the Rural Women GP Service, On the Road, remote consultations provided by all our doctors and our newly established dental service.

Primary Health Care is provided by the doctors and Primary Health Care nurses at all four of our rural bases. Three of these bases, Meekatharra, Port Hedland and Kalgoorlie, have been accredited to the Royal College of General Practitioners standards.

We have a dentist and a dental nurse who visit Wiluna and Warburton and we hope to expand this service in the future.

We deal with acute medical problems as they present, as well as chronic disease management, which we are more and more focussed on, hence the addition of a Primary Health Care nurse to the teams

We strive to work in liaison with service providers such as the WA Country Health service and the local Aboriginal Health services to improve the health of our patients in rural and remote Western Australia.