Cowell to Cummins Horse Trek has now finished

21 Mar 2012 - 25 Mar 2012

Since 1928, the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) has provided 24-hour emergency medical services to those who live, work and travel throughout Australia.

Today the RFDS provides the finest care to more than 275,000 Australians each year - that's one person every two minutes!

The RFDS has expanded its traditional role to deliver a broad range of primary and preventative health care services to rural and remote communities.

It also provides urgent aeromedical transfers of patients between regional and metropolitan hospitals to higher levels of care.

The RFDS also delivers critical support to those who live in urban centres. This includes the regular transfer of patients to interstate hospitals for life-saving surgery such as organ transplant and heart surgery on newborn babies.

While supported by the governments, the RFDS relies on fundraising intiatives and donations from the community to purchase and medically-equip its Pilatus PC-12 aircraft - at a cost of $6 million each.