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Australian Aviation icon services under threat -

Via the Oz today:

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Funding cuts threaten flying doctor services


Royal Flying Doctors servicing rural Australia.

The Australian12:00AM February 14, 2018

MICHAEL MCKENNA



ReporterBrisbane
@McKennaattheOz

The Royal Flying Doctor Service has warned it will be forced to abandon some of its health work in rural Australia unless the federal government reinstates funding cuts made last year.

The Turnbull government’s budget-repair measures slashed $10.2 million in funding from the RFDS this financial year in a move the 90-year-old organisation says can no longer be sustained without cutting services.

Corporate and private donors covered some of the shortfall from the budget cut — which reduced commonwealth funding to $57m — with the RFDS also using cash out of reserves normally used to buy aircraft.

In a letter to federal Coalition MPs and senators, the RFDS said it could no longer cover the cost of its nationwide operations, which include air retrievals, GP clinics and dental services for an estimated 600,000 people.

RFDS chief executive Martin Laverty said services already were stretched, and the cuts were delivered at a time when there was a growing need in dental and mental health.

Mr Laverty said the RFDS, which also receives state funding, wanted to avoid cutting back on services, which cover those people out of “Medicare reach’’ across Australia.

“It is unfathomable for us to even contemplate having to cut back at a time when demand in areas like mental health is growing,’’ he said.

“We didn’t have to cut any services this year because we had generous donors plug the gap.’’

It is understood the RFDS will consider cutting the operating hours and coverage of GP clinics in remote Australia, including in indigenous communities.

Last year, The Australian revealed that doctors working in Queensland indigenous communities had formally complained that cuts were adversely affecting health outcomes.

The government faces growing pressure from within its own ranks, especially among Nationals MPs and senators.

Queensland Nationals Senator Barry O’Sullivan last night said the funding needed to be reinstated or it could cost lives.

“The last thing we as a government should be doing is reducing funding for rural health services,’’ he said.

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MTF...P2