Coopers Crossing,1985 – Sister Kate Wellings readies herself for a day of flying around the outback treating and saving numerous locals who have gotten themselves into some kind of mischief. The miniseries was “The Flying Doctors” and I thought “what the most wonderful job – I am going to do that!”. A little spark in me did think - why not “The Flying Nurses? Nearly 40 years on and I get to talk about the best job around – a ‘Flying Nurse and Midwife”.
A CareFlight helicopter arrived in the NT in 2007 – we joke that “the wallabies brought us to town”. A plague of wallabies at Tindal Airbase near Katherine, was prohibiting the landing of aircraft – or if they did land it would be some time before the aircraft was flying again. This helicopter retrieved about 120 patients per year, in and out of Katherine Hospital mostly, with the odd call out to primary car crashes and cattle station mishaps. Fast forward 17 years and we now retrieve 7900 patients per year and take approximately 9600 calls for help in our call centre. Our service is patient focused, and I am proud to say, many missions are nurse/ midwife led.
Nurses and midwives work in autonomous roles, on four different platforms –patient transfer vehicles, fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft and jets. The work is diverse, exciting, challenging, rewarding and at times stressful. Our crews work at top of scope each day, finding new ways of getting the job done which is affectionately known as “MacGyvering a solution”.
Unlike hospital nursing at present, we do not have a problem recruiting nurses and midwives. A luxury not lost on me. Why is it easy for us and not others? How do we ignite in hospital nurses/ midwives the thrill of nursing and midwifery that is felt by the team at CareFlight everyday? I see a partnership opening, I see a new way of working side by side with hospitals to again make nursing and midwifery not just a job but a vocation – it’s the least we can do for our patients.

From the desire of the Pintupi to return to their Ngurra (country) came a whole world of advocacy and innovation around the treatment of End Stage Renal Failure.
Our beginnings, our successes and challenges provide a fascinating example of how community controlled, culturally embedded services can have ripple effects across the country.
What can we learn from this and how can people from remote communities teach clinicians and academics to look at problems and solutions in a different way?
Come for a rattly ride on some of the roughest and most extraordinary bush tracks in Australia.

The National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre is a key component of the Australian Government’s health emergencies preparedness and response capability to incidents of local, national and international significance.
Key elements of the NCCTRC’s capacity to quickly and effectively respond include the coordination and deployment of the Australian Medical Assistance Team (AUSMAT) capability, inclusive of a deployable, fully self-sufficient 60 bed Field Surgical hospital accredited by both WHO and ACHS.
In addition, NCCTRC coordinates the delivery of a DFAT-funded Regional Engagement Program, to build more effective, equitable and resilient health emergencies response capacity across 6 Pacific countries and Timor Leste.