Dr Mardi Steere2, Mrs Michelle Stirling1
1Royal Flying Doctor Service Western Operations, Jandakot, Australia, 2RFDS SA/NT, Adelaide , Australia
Abstract:
The purpose of this presentation is to describe the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) participation in the creation of, and subsequent application of the European Organisation for Civil Aviation Equipment (Eurocae) ED-317 Guidance Document for Aeromedical Transport of Patients with Highly Infectious Diseases (HID). The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted a paucity of knowledge and consistent guidance worldwide on the management of patients with HID on-board smaller aircraft flown by air ambulance services. The creation of this document is a first of its kind, describing the application of infection control principles on board smaller air ambulance aircraft tasked with transporting patients with HID. Aeromedical retrieval services faced the dilemma of balancing patient needs, demands for retrieval as part of their jurisdictional pandemic response plans and the need to protect vulnerable crew including pilots. RFDS represented the Australian aeromedical retrieval experience on the creation of this international document. Now this published document is being utilised to standardise infection control practice by RFDS across Australia.
This presentation will describe the input RFDS had on the ED-317 document and the subsequent application of learnings to RFDS operations across RFDS sections. The presentation will also describe the flow on effect in participation in state and multi-agency public health response planning for future HID outbreaks utilising the clearly defined requirements indicated in ED-317. Having a guidance document has taken the subjectiveness from planning for aeromedical transport of patients with HID in smaller air ambulance aircraft.
Biographies:
Michelle is an infection prevention and control specialist nurse for Royal Flying Doctor Service Western Operations. Michelle has previous experience in Western Australia’s pandemic response and in statewide infection control services, as well as performing infection control roles in acute hospital and aged care settings. Michelle has a Master of Public Health and is a member of the Australasian College of Infection Prevention and Control. Applying infection control principles to the aeromedical setting presents unique challenges which MIchelle finds greatly rewarding.