Unprepared grey nomads are putting pressure on the healthcare system as more older travellers visit the outback to tick off their ‘bucket list’
- Tourists in their last month of life are travelling to some seriously remote places
- Medical emergencies involving tourists with existing health problems have risen
- Charleville RFDS set to record their busiest year with over 1,200 flight hours
Grey nomads are putting pressure on the healthcare system as the number of older people touring the outback rises.
Dr Clare Walker, president of the Rural Doctors Association of Queensland, says medical emergencies involving tourists with existing health problems has become a trend 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.’
Grey nomads are putting pressure on the healthcare system as the number of older people touring the outback rises
Dr Clare Walker, president of the Rural Doctors Association of Queensland, says medical emergencies involving tourists with existing health problems has become a trend in the outback
Officials at Charleville Royal Flying Doctor Service base, which is located about 750km from Brisbane, say they are set to record their busiest year with over 1,200 flight hours already recorded this year.
The RFDS crew had flown 1,080 hours around the same time last year.
Dr Fergus Gardiner, the director of research and policy at the RFDS, said their aeromedical retrievals for older people are increasing across rural and remote Australia.
He believes this was because of older tourists and ageing regional communities.
Data showed of the 22,000 aeromedical retrievals conducted for those aged 65 years or above between 2014 and 2017, 18,000 were non-Indigenous, and 4,000 were Indigenous.
‘We suspect it’s related to an aging population,’ he said.
Charleville manager of clinical and base operations, Joanne Mahony, says a severe flu season and a rise in outback tourism, especially those passing through western Queensland, have been keeping the team busy.
The base has recorded a rise of 45 per cent in aeromedical flights over the past one decade.
Officials say most of the time patients are not properly insured and a medical retrieval can be expensive.
Officials at Charleville Royal Flying Doctor Service base, which is located about 750km from Brisbane, say they are set to record their busiest year with over 1,200 flight hours already recorded this year