Flying doc a down-to-earth true blue hero

In tiny towns and on cattle stations, doctor Caroline West helps run pop-up COVID test clinics for some of the nation’s most isolated communities.

Dr Caroline West, middle, arrives in Ivanhoe in western NSW with medical student William Zhou, left, and fellow doctor Prem Suvado. Picture: John Feder

In tiny towns and on cattle stations speckled across the vast outback, doctor Caroline West does not only have her eye on her ­patients’ temperatures as she helps to run pop-up COVID test clinics for some of the nation’s most isolated and vulnerable communities.

Dr West and her fellow medicos at the Royal Flying Doctors Services are forced to set up their mobile testing sites wherever practicable — and often in sweltering conditions.

The clinics can be as humble as a couple of fold-out chairs on the side of a barren stretch of highway with only the dappled shade of a eucalyptus tree to spare the physicians — kitted out in full protective gear — from the harsh summer sun as the mercury rises well above 40C.

Their commitment to containing the spread of the virus in the bush in such extreme conditions is not lost on those who rely on the service to keep them safe.

“That’s been one of the hardest things out here — the heatwave conditions — and we’ve already had to reinvent how we do some of the clinics,” Dr West says.

“We’re often running them under a gum tree in blistering heat because it’s the coolest spot we can find to encourage people to have their testing done.

“We did one in a place called Packsaddle (north of Broken Hill in far western NSW) the other day and we had temperatures of 50C out in our clinic by the side of the road. That was a tough day.

Dr West, left, makes notes as nurse Sarah O’Brien takes the temperature of Ivanhoe resident Donald Haub. Picture: John Feder

“But it’s so rewarding to know that we are helping people who can’t always get to a doctor where they are, and that they appreciate what we are doing so much.

“We’ve even had people bring out iceblocks to help us keep cool as a way of saying thank you.”

After selling up her Sydney medical practice last year, Dr West had intended to relocate to India to open a health clinic ­before the pandemic struck.

“I was supposed to be moving to Bangalore where I was going to be working for three years in medicine,” she says.

“I had sold my practice in Sydney, which was in the Kings Cross area where I had been based for 30 years, and I wrapped everything up there and was ready to move to India when COVID rolled through and I thought, ‘Oh, okay. We better really rethink this. This is all looking very dire for the world’.

“I stepped in and did an urgent placement north of Newcastle, where there are a lot of people who had COVID coming into that area, who’d come off the cruise ships. My experience was really managing COVID in the community and testing and swabbing, and it was in its early, early days where we were really learning on the fly.”

The frontline role steeled Dr West’s resolve to continue the fight against further outbreaks.

“I took a job in the Aboriginal health service out in Broken Hill doing respiratory testing because there were a lot of fears that if COVID took hold in remote communities, particularly Aboriginal communities, it would be a disaster due to the combination of geographical isolation, people living in close quarters and the highly infectious nature of the disease.

“So I came out here to do that and then the next thing I know I’m working for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Wilcannia runway. Picture: John Feder

“It’s been absolutely awesome. It’s not just the medical people at the front line doing swabbing on the roadside. It’s people who are co-ordinating, getting our equipment ready, flying the planes.”

Indeed, while much of the world’s aviation industry has been grounded during the pandemic, the RFDS have been clocking up additional air miles, flying doctors into the nation’s most isolated communities to conduct testing and transfer those infected to hospital for treatment.

In addition to the respiratory testing clinics, the service this year has been responsible for treating 2638 patients either infected with COVID-19 or classified as highly suspected carriers.

The mission is far from over, with the RFDS next year set to play a crucial role in the delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine throughout the bush.

“I’m fascinated by vaccines that are coming through and how that’s going to roll out,” Dr West says. “That’s going to be our next challenge — delivering vaccines to all of these areas.

“You know, I was supposed to be doing downward dogs and learning yoga in India this year, and instead here I am standing on the side of a hot dusty road — and I cannot think of anything more rewarding.”