Operations Centre

We employ over 25 fulltime doctors and approximately 30 flight nurses at five bases across the State.  A centralized Operations Centre staffed by Operations Coordinators is located in Perth at Jandakot Airport.

More than 30,000 medical and emergency calls are handled each year through the Operations Centre and distributed to RFDS (Western Operations) medical officers on a regional basis. On any weekday up to 10 medical staff are on duty to take transport calls and undertake retrieval flights. At night, calls are distributed to a minimum of 5 doctors. During daylight hours, an additional Medical Coordinator is also located in the Operations Centre, to oversee transport demands and liaise with receiving and referring hospitals during peaks of activity.

This system ensures prompt single-point of contact and one-stop access to medical advice and aeromedical transport.  The use of multiple experienced doctors across the State providing an extended virtual Operations Centre, ensures that most callers speak to a retrieval doctor with a high level of local geographical and logistical knowledge.  The system also ensures that multiple doctors are available to handle multiple concurrent emergency calls at the one time.

All calls through the Operations Centre are voice-logged.  When calls are received a few core items of information are obtained, then the caller is switched through to a duty retrieval doctor within approximately 2 minutes. Transport requests from country hospitals must be made by a medical officer and the patient must be accepted by a medical practitioner at the receiving hospital. In addition, referrals for transport must be authorized by an RFDS medical officer. Three medical practitioners approving any transfer minimizes the likelihood of unnecessary transfers being made.