CheckUP proudly acknowledges Angel Flight’s Rural Medi-Flight Service for making healthcare accessible to remote communities and beyond.

Over the past three years, Angel Flight has seen a significant increase in demand for transporting health professionals to rural and remote communities across Australia. In response, Angel Flight launched its Rural Medi-Flight service in early 2024—an innovative approach that flips the traditional model of flying rural patients into the city by instead flying doctors, allied health professionals, and medical students directly into rural and remote communities.

The Rural Medi-Flight service aims to address the urgent healthcare gap in rural Australia while providing busy health professionals with safe, cost-efficient, and reliable air transport to hard-to-reach communities. The service is designed to bring healthcare directly to the bush, minimising travel disruptions for medical practitioners and allowing them to spend more time with patients and less time in transit.

A professional and reliable service

The dedicated air service operates to the highest standards, under the Air Transport Category, and is flown by highly experienced airline pilots with Instructor and Check and Training Captain status. Angel Flight’s health professional passengers have consistently praised the professionalism and efficiency of the service, noting that the direct flights save them valuable time, allowing for more patient care and less travel stress.

One medical professional shared, “Being able to fly directly to the community without lengthy travel connections means I can dedicate more time to my patients. The professionalism of Angel Flight’s service makes the entire journey seamless and stress-free.”

The aircraft used for Rural Medi-Flights is a comfortable 8-10 seat, cabin-class, twin-engine plane affectionately named Kayla—a tribute to an Angel Flight passenger who flew 400 missions before sadly losing her health battle at the age of 23. Kayla’s size and versatility enables it to land at all country town airfields, making it perfect for reaching remote areas.

Making an impact across Queensland

Since its launch, the Rural Medi-Flight service has flown specialists, allied health professionals, and medical students to 22 communities and counting, from Birdsville to Blackall, Monto to Mornington, the service has become an invaluable lifeline for rural areas that previously faced long waiting times or extensive travel to access medical care.

Image: “Kayla” the aircraft used for Rural Medi-Flights at dusk.

A vision for national expansion

With the success of the Queensland-based service, Angel Flight is planning to expand the Rural Medi-Flight model into a national operation, with dedicated aircraft based in each capital city as well as key regional hubs like Cairns and Port Hedland. However, this ambitious vision will only be possible with government or significant private funding.

Until then, Angel Flight remains committed to sustaining its current operations, ensuring that doctors can continue reaching the communities that need care the most.

Images above: QPHCN event attendees are pictured as a group (left), and CheckUP and Country to Coast team members are shown standing and networking.

CheckUP Workforce and Industry Programs
• Health Industry Skills and Jobs Advisor (ISJA)
• Health Industry Workforce Advisor (IWA)
• Community Services Industry Workforce Advisor (IWA)
• First Nations Health Care and Social Assistance Industry Workforce Advisor (IWA)
• CheckUP Connect – NDIS Business Connect
• Health Gateway to Industry Schools project
• Micro-credentialling program – Going all OUT for Outreach
• Micro-credentialling program – Disability Friendly Business
Basics

World Hearing Day is held on 3 March each year to raise awareness of how to prevent deafness and hearing loss and promote ear and hearing care across the world.

CheckUP manage the Healthy Ears: Better Hearing Better Listening (Healthy Ears) program. Providing services in urban, rural, regional, remote and very remote communities across Queensland, the Healthy Ears program aims to increase access to ear and hearing health services for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of hearing health conditions in First Nations children and youth.

Otitis media (inflammation and/or infection of the middle ear) is the main condition contributing towards hearing loss in First Nations children. Experiencing hearing loss in childhood can affect speech and language development, and may lead to behavioural problems, early school leaving, limited employment options and increased contact with the criminal justice system (Burns and Thomson 2013).

Health promotion and regular routine ear and hearing health checks are integral for preventable hearing loss. Care for Kids’ Ears offers information and resources about ear health for parents, carers, teachers, teachers’ aides, early childhood workers and health professionals. The resources aim to help reduce rates of otitis media among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. These are free and available to order now on the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation’s website.

Left image: Michaela Pacini TCHHS Maternal Child and Family Nurse with patient. Right image: Kirsten Tregenza TCHHS Audiologist with patient.

Through the Healthy Ears program, CheckUP support the Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service’s (TCHHS) Ear and Hearing Health multi-disciplinary team to facilitate children’s ear checks across rural and remote Cape communities.

Recently TCHHS’s Maternal Child and Family Nurse Michaela Pacini was joined by Audiologist Kris Tregenza, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioner Maria Smith and Pormpuraaw Health Worker Carolyn Brian at Pormpuraaw State School to perform ear health checks for all the children.

87% of children currently enrolled at Pormpuraaw State School and in community were screened over two and a half days. The children were excited to have their ears checked, with the team using the video otoscopy which is an examination which allows the kids to see live footage of the inside of their ear canals, followed by the tympanometry and audiometry ‘listening game’ equipment making the ear check fun and engaging.

It was a great outcome as no active ear infections were identified and just over a handful of kids need new Audiologist referrals.

Healthy Ears is managed by CheckUP and is supported by funding from the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care under the Indigenous Australians’ Health Programme.

Left image: Maria Smith TCHHS Health practitioner with patient. Right image: Kirsten Tregenza TCHHS Audiologist with patient.

BlueCare, a prominent provider of in-home care and aged care services in Queensland, have been navigating the challenges of workforce attraction in a competitive labour market.

With a team of around 8,500 employees and 500 volunteers, BlueCare recognises the need for a consistent influx of skilled personal care workers, especially as demand for services continues to rise.

To address workforce shortages and retention issues, BlueCare have adopted a “Grow Our Own” strategy, including forming partnerships with selected Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) to enhance training and placement opportunities for students.

However, while RTO partners provide access to a pool of students, challenges remain. Many students are not located in the areas where the organisation has immediate workforce needs. Additionally, placements do not always align with students career aspirations, resulting in lower conversion rates from placement to employment.

To tackle these issues, BlueCare has implemented several practical solutions. Including:

BlueCare have increased their educational partnerships from three to seven, ensuring better alignment with staffing needs. A placement request template has been introduced to gauge student availability and interest, while a workforce attraction flyer has been created to help students find job openings and submit inquiries.

Furthermore, the organisation has developed a strategy that enables personal care students to be hired as supervised (unqualified) personal carers prior to or during their placements, allowing them to gain valuable experience and receive paid shifts.

Existing employees also have opportunities to undertake paid training and participate in practical placements to upskill and advance their careers.

On top of these initiatives, BlueCare has seen success in its traineeship program, with over 433 traineeships initiated since February 2022 and a retention rate of 71%.

By continuing to foster a supportive learning environment, BlueCare aims to strengthen its workforce and ensure that qualified personal care workers are available to meet the needs of the community.

CheckUP is excited to report that patient feedback survey responses are starting to flow in and a number of providers have already received their first personalised feedback reports.

The state-wide results from over 250 responses between July and December 2024 have been extremely positive and the first weeks of January have seen another 50 arrive.

We would love to be able to provide you all with your own feedback directly from your patients and increase your value-based healthcare capabilities. We are aiming for one thousand responses state wide for 2024-2025 with as much patient and provider representation as possible, so please get involved in this important quality improvement activity.

State-wide results for July-December 2024:

Experience of care:

Outcomes of care:

A variety of survey formats (paper and digital) have been developed to suit individual patient preferences. Information and resources were mailed out to providers in late 2024 in an evaluation pack.

If your patients are comfortable with online entry, ask your Regional Coordinator for a loan of their CheckUP feedback iPad or hand out the A4 posters or small business cards with the QR code included in your evaluation packs sent out late last year. Otherwise select from the range of paper surveys you were sent and contact your Regional Coordinator when you need refills.

CheckUP contracts 20 podiatry providers to deliver Outreach services to 65 unique locations across the state.

CheckUP funded podiatrists play a critical role in managing lower limb issues and chronic disease management in high need communities. They also provide upskilling to local health professionals to manage issues between podiatry visits and engage with patients to better understand and manage their chronic conditions.

Accessibility of services closer to home and health outcomes are two main priorities in managing and delivering Outreach programs. Across the 733 podiatry visits delivered to date, providers have reported positive outcomes including:

It was particularly lovely to read the comments in a recent report from Andrew Khoury who provides a popular podiatry service to Kilkivan; ‘This has been a very successful year professionally and regionally. We will endeavour to provide the same competent level of care in 2025. Thank you, CheckUP, for your ongoing support during this year. Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas season’. We certainly appreciate your ongoing commitment to Outreach, along with all our providers.

Outreach services are designed and delivered considering the quadruple aims of improved:

• health outcomes
• patient experiences
• provider experiences
• effectiveness and efficiency

We understand that delivering Outreach services can be challenging and you need to manage your own wellbeing and avoid burnout.

If you missed the webinar on Strengthening Staff Wellbeing In The Health Sector with Dr Liz Crowe, you can access it here.

The Australian Podiatry Association’s latest issue of Stride also has a personal perspective article on Burnout in podiatry and working to mitigate the risk of burnout.

A CheckUP provider is pictured with a patient above.

View the Annual Report on Issuu

Watch the 2023-2024 Annual Report Video

Read the FY2023-24 Audited Annual Financial Report (including Directors’ Report) HERE

Get ready to deliver health services in remote and rural areas

22 November 2024

In response to feedback received from outreach health service providers, CheckUP has developed – Going all OUT for Outreach – an innovative online micro-credentialing course that address a range of workforce issues in the rural health sector.

Funded by the Queensland Government, the course was designed and developed by health professionals and organisations currently engaged in the delivery of outreach health services in Queensland, although the course is relevant for health professionals and health facility staff involved in the delivery of services in any regional location in Australia.

The aim of the Going all OUT for Outreach micro-credential program is to ensure that health service providers working in regional, rural and remote communities have the appropriate knowledge and skills to respond to the complexity of Outreach health service delivery. Additionally, host facility staff will learn how to effectively host a visiting Outreach health service.

CheckUP CEO, Ann Maree Liddy, describes Going all OUT for Outreach as an innovative and unique online course that will significantly improve the skills, knowledge and confidence of health providers who travel to rural and remote communities to deliver much needed health services.

Ms Liddy said, “We know that delivering health services in regional areas is incredibly rewarding for our outreach health providers, but we recognise that this work can be very challenging and difficult at times. We consulted with many of our current Outreach health providers to develop a free online course that is engaging and interactive, and full of practical tips to enhance the healthcare delivery experience for our providers. We believe this will ultimately contribute to high quality care for the recipients of this care – those people living in remote communities.”

The course has four key objectives:

1. To enhance Outreach health service delivery with a focus on local solutions. This includes training in upskilling to address skills gaps and skilling needs of local health professionals.

2. To ensure timely, local responses in the rural and remote health workforce by delivering training to assist health providers to work at top of scope and improve quality of care by promoting multi-disciplinary team-based models.

3. To address the maldistribution of the health workforce in Queensland by increasing the attraction and retention of health professionals and assistants in rural and remote locations.

4. To improve facility efficiencies in the hosting of visiting Outreach health providers.

The training is centred around three key areas – Onboarding, Upskilling and Teaching (OUT) with participants trained in practitioner health and safety, outreach readiness, working in multi-disciplinary teams, skill needs identification, upskilling and student supervision, and hosting visiting Outreach services.

Share Going All OUT for Outreach with your colleagues, students, health providers and network.

Download the Going All OUT for Outreach Media Kit here.

Going All OUT for Outreach launch

CheckUP hosted several events online and in-person to launch Going All OUT.

Above: Highlights from the launch of Going all OUT.

CheckUP Australia

CheckUP is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing for people and communities who need it most. CheckUP is committed to supporting communities and reducing inequities by strategically collaborating at a regional and local level to lead improvements and deliver a range of initiatives in the health and community services sectors. With a strong network of partner organisations and health providers CheckUP has an established presence in over 170 communities across Queensland.

World Diabetes Day is held annually on 14 November. This year’s theme, Diabetes and Wellbeing, aims to put wellbeing into the heart of diabetes care, believing that with appropriate access to diabetes care and support for their wellbeing, everyone with diabetes has the chance to live well.

However, not everyone has the same access to diabetes care. Hospitalisation and rates of death related to diabetes are significantly higher in rural and remote communities than in major Australian cities.

CheckUP recently spoke with a few of the Outreach Credentialled Diabetes Educators who are improving the equity of diabetes care and changing the lives of Western Queenslanders.

Diabetes Australia is supported by funding from Western Queensland PHN through the Australian Government’s PHN Program, and we would like to extend our appreciation for this support.

Diabetes is one of the top health priorities within Western Queensland, with diabetes contributing to a significant burden of illness and complications being one of the main reasons for hospitalisation within the region.

People living rurally and remotely are:

Statistics taken from the Western Queensland Diabetes Service Framework  pictured over an aerial photo of Mount Isa.

In some of Western Queensland’s remote communities diabetes impacts up to 20 per cent of the population, with many people also living with other health conditions.

Compared with non-Indigenous Australians, Indigenous Australians are:

Statistics taken from the Western Queensland Diabetes Service Framework  pictured over an aerial photo of Lake Broadwater, Dalby.