Brewarrina, Bourke and Walgett are at the epicentre of funding for the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), with the three towns being earmarked to develop a new primary care model to address ongoing health issues. 

The $400,000 will go towards research, development and co-design of a multidisciplinary model of primary care to meet the needs of communities with limited primary health services. 

While the RFDS team is eager to avoid a one-sized fits all approach, RFDS Manager of Education and Development Jackie Hanniver said the goal is to make the new model ‘translatable’ to similar regions. 

“We noticed there’s not always a lot of specific services and there are a lot of people who have to travel out of the community to access these services. What we’re hoping to do is to actually take what’s working elsewhere and bring it back into the communities to reduce the travel,” Ms Hanniver said. 

According to the local Primary Health Network (PHN), Bourke, Brewarrina, and Walgett were all identified as LGAs with the highest standard of disadvantage in relation to health, social distress and community safety. 

These identified issues helped tighten the scope of where the funds will go, with plans to look at allied health services, in-home aged care, and Aboriginal health care.

The services the RFDS are looking to promote and improve are largely on the ground - despite the RFDS being better known for being in the air - but it’s all a part of their new approach to health within rural and remote communities, focusing on prevention over cure. 

“Over recent years we’ve moved a lot and invested a lot in the primary health side of things and moved away from trying to get to people after an event has happened and they’ve become unwell,” Ms Hanniver said. 

While the $400,000 can only go so far, RFDS is hopeful that it will build crucial foundations for a new model that can thrive in vulnerable communities.

“One of the things that really excited me about this grant is the opportunity for the workforce and increasing attraction for people who would want to come and work,” Ms Hanniver said. 

“RFDS has a very big focus on growing their own people into these roles that get identified as needs…then they know the ins and outs and it makes it so much easier when you can essentially grow your own workforce from within the community,” she said. 

The grant is a part of the Health Workforce Program aimed at delivering improved health workforce outcomes and supporting rural outreach health services. The funds will be delivered over the coming two years.