Primary Health Care Services

Initially, our focus was on supporting custodians of our RFDS (Western Operations) medical chests, and where these people operated a privately owned airstrip, ensuring that they were aware of current legal requirements and standards for RFDS (Western Operations) aircraft to land – day and night.

However, our service has developed to offer a range of health education, screening and training activities, depending on the needs of the people we visit.  A typical visit may include one or more of the following:

• Instruction on the management of the RFDS medical chests
• Specific relevant first aid training eg: management of snake bite; giving intramuscular injections; management of bleeding, fractures, dehydration; and basic life support training
• Healthy lifestyle activities for children and adults related to diet, exercise, drug and alcohol, mental health, injury prevention etc
• One-on-one basic health consultations to assess an individual’s health risks and discuss management strategies
• Health risk assessments eg: cardiac risk screening and management advice on obesity, nutrition, blood pressure, cholesterol etc
• Men’s health – Pit Stop initiative [assessments and advice on flexibility; smoking; alcohol; blood pressure; hip to waist ratio; testicular cancer; stress indicators and skin cancer]
• Dissemination of information re availability of local and state health services, clinics and specialists
• Accredited St John Ambulance ‘Senior First Aid Course’
• Emergency evacuation preparation procedures for paramedics, emergency services personnel and health workers
• Airstrip survey and information on RFDS standards for day and night landing

A typical ‘RFDS on the Road’ visit to a Pilbara station where a RFDS (Western Operaitons) medical chest is located generally lasts 3 – 8 hours, depending on the number of people and the level of understanding the medical chest custodian has of their responsibilities in managing the chest.

This type of visit generally includes:

• an overview of the medical chest and the required management processes (regular audit of expiry dates on pharmaceutical items, regular reordering of used or expired items, disposal of dangerous drugs, reporting of stolen drugs)
• review RFDS emergency and telephone consultation processes
• first aid training to support use of the medical chest in an emergency – includes CPR, instruction on how to give an intramuscular injection and how to manage snakebite
• survey of airstrip and information on RFDS aircraft landing requirements

Our 2007 program focus will be on developing partnerships with other health agencies and professionals.  Our first project was a skin cancer screening pilot project conducted in partnership with the Lions Cancer Institute at BHP Billiton Iron Ore’s Nelson Point site in Port Hedland in April 2007. 

Health agencies interested in exploring opportunities to work in partnership with the ‘RFDS on the Road’ Program are encouraged to contact the program manager on (08) 9417 6391.

Last Updated: 22/08/2007