MORE than 10,000 patients were flown to emergency or specialist care around Queensland, with the Royal Flying Doctor Service successfully navigating 2020 with minimal disruptions.
According to RFDS yearly statistics patient transfers across the state were on par with 2019, with 10,678 patients using the vital service between January 1 and December 1, 2020.
Forty of these patients were transferred under COVID-19 precautions in Queensland.
While adhering to strict health guidelines during the height of the pandemic, the RFDS continued to deliver a high standard of healthcare, providing GP and nursing clinics to 94 locations across the state.
More than 25,000 patients accessed these services, from the far north on Cape York, to the south west corner at Birdsville.
The RFDS dental service team, while unable to carry out dental consultations during parts of the pandemic-affected year, still delivered oral health care to more than 1000 patients.
Meanwhile, RFDS mental health clinicians delivered 5275 consultations across the service's three major mental health and wellbeing teams, despite having to shift to a telehealth first model.
While delivering these services across Queensland, RFDS pilots flew a total of 21,542 hours over 7.4 million kilometres, landing at 224 locations.
RFDS chief executive officer Meredith Staib said it was a challenging year for all healthcare providers.
"This year was unlike anything anyone could have predicted, and I am immensely proud of the way our front-line staff and the whole organisation responded to the pandemic," she said.
"Throughout the rapidly developing situation our key focus remained on protecting the communities we serve.
"This included shifting to telehealth where required, extending stays in community for some RFDS medical staff, heightening of staff PPE protocols, and innovative decontamination processes for our aircraft."
