Royal Flying Doctor Service set for budget boost

Malcolm Turnbull will announce an extra $84 million for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

The Royal Flying Doctor's Service is set for a budget boost. Picture: Supplied

Malcolm Turnbull will announce an extra $84 million in the May budget for the Royal Flying Doctor Service to give people in the regions easier access to mental health services.

The Prime Minister will make the announcement today with Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack in Broken Hill, with the extra cash going towards the establishment of a new mental health outreach clinic scheme.

It will also put more psychologists and mental health nurses on the ground in areas where there are few or no services and expand on the provision of dental care.

The announcement is part of a four-year $327 million commitment to ensure the RFDS can extend their services to new areas.

Dental outreach services will also be extended beyond 2019 while the new mental health outreach clinic program will commence operation by January 1 next year.

Mental Health Australia chief executive Frank Quinlan said that remote Australians saw mental health

professionals at “one fifth the rate of city people”.

“Large parts of country Australia have no registered psychologists. This new funding for mental health care in remote Australia will help to fill that gap,” he said.

Australian Dental Association chief executive Damian Mitsch also noted that country areas had around one third of the number of dentists in city areas. “This Commonwealth support that opens up dental access in the bush is welcome,” he said.

National Farmers Federation chief executive Tony Mahar said that a 2017 survey of farmers on health care showed they needed better access to “mental health services in the bush”.

Chief executive of the Rural Flying Doctor Service, Martin Laverty, said the funding would provide greater certainty for patients.

“RFDS cared for 335,000 Australians last year in the air, on the ground, or via telehealth,” he said. “We can now also deliver a new mental health service to under-served country areas in all States and the Northern Territory”.

The funding commitment will benefit six operational sections of the RFDS serving remote areas in NSW, South Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania.

Of the 335,000 people cared for in the last year, the RFDS delivered more 17,000 primary health care clinics in different remote locations; 88,000 tele-health consultations; 10,000 episodes of dental care. It was also responsible for 36,799 “air retrievals of patients” and 70,576 “road transfers’ of patients.