'COVID on Country': an innovative model safely supporting high-risk patients in Central Australia.

2022-10-01

Steere, Mardi

Goodwin, Samuel

Gardiner, Fergus W

Gray, Debra

Carpenter, David

Pryzibilla, Anthony

Quilty, Simon

Royal Flying Doctor Service, RFDS Central Operations, 1 Tower Road, Adelaide, SA 5950, Australia; and Menzies School of Medicine, Charles Darwin University, Ellengowan Drive, Brinkin, NT 0909, Australia mardi.steere@flyingdoctor.net.

Royal Flying Doctor Service, RFDS Central Operations, 1 Tower Road, Adelaide, SA 5950, Australia samuel.goodwin@nt.gov.au.

Royal Flying Doctor Service Australia, Level 2, 10-12 Brisbane Avenue, Barton ACT 2600; and National Centre of Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Mills St, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia fergus.gardiner@rfds.org.au.

Alice Springs Hospital, 6 Gap Rd, Alice Springs, NT 0870, Australia debra.gray@nt.gov.au.

Royal Flying Doctor Service, RFDS Central Operations, 1 Tower Road, Adelaide, SA 5950, Australia david.carpenter@flyingdoctor.net.

Royal Flying Doctor Service, RFDS Central Operations, 1 Tower Road, Adelaide, SA 5950, Australia anthony.pryzibilla@flyingdoctor.net.

National Centre of Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Mills St, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia simon.quilty@anu.edu.au.

Australia

COVID

Indigenous

emergency response

aeromedical retrieval

Humans

COVID-19

Pandemics

Physicians

Northern Territory

Rural Health Services

Journal Article

Publication

In January 2022, as the COVID pandemic reached remote communities in Central Australia, The Northern Territory Health Central Australian Regional Health Service and the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) executed 'COVID on Country', a program designed to triage cases and to implement treatment and clinical review of individuals in their community without the need to be relocated to larger centres for safe provision of care. The program assessed patient factors and community/capacity factors to triage and enact pathways. Remote living people who qualified for the program or who declined aeromedical retrieval, were provided with comprehensive clinical support, including administration of intravenous sotrovimab by daily scheduled visits to all affected communities by a doctor transported on an RFDS plane. Evaluation of the program demonstrated that it was a safe and effective way to provide complex care in a culturally safe manner.

link

Rural Remote Health . 2022 Oct;22(4):7541. doi: 10.22605/RRH7541. Epub 2022 Oct 31.

1445-6354

1445-6354

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36310351/?otool=iaurydwlib