Senior Aussies travelling to the Outback are causing increasing amounts of pressure on healthcare system
Senior Australian’s are applying pressure to the healthcare system as the number of older Aussies touring the outback is increasing.
Dr Clare Walker, president of the Rural Doctors Association of Queensland said tourists with existing health complications have become a common occurrence in the outback.
“We see a lot of people with significant illnesses, sometimes even in the last month of their life, travelling to some seriously remote places with very few services and without very much preparation,” Dr Walker told the ABC.
“I’ve actually seen that more this year than I have done in the past. There’s been a few patients that have said that this was on their bucket list – the Birdsville races, or this or that.”
Officials at Charleville Royal Flying Doctor Service base, which is located 750km from Brisbane, have revealed that they will be facing their busiest year yet with over 1200 flights already recorded for 2019.
The same time last year, RFDS had flown 1080 hours.
Dr Fergus Gardiner says it’s becoming increasingly common for older tourists to require aeromedical retrievals. Data showed that of the 22000 aeromedical retrievals conducted for those aged 65 years or above between 2014 and 2017, 18000 were non-Indigenous and 4000 were Indigenous.
“We suspect it’s related to an ageing population,” he said.