Running 30 vaccination clinics at Wilcannia has helped the Royal Flying Doctor Service South Eastern Section (RFDSSE) reach a lifesaving milestone.
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This week it announced the delivery of more than 15,000 jabs to residents of regional and remote communities since June.
The Wilcannia clinics, operated by staff at the RFDSSE Broken Hill base in conjunction with the Far West Local Health District and Central Darling Shire Council, have protected almost 700 people against the deadly coronavirus.
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The town of about 800 people, 60 per cent of them Indigenous, has also benefitted from the presence of an RFDSSE doctor at its hospital.
RFDSSE Chief Medical Officer Randall Greenberg was among the medicos to work at the remote facility.
"With the number of COVID cases rising during late August we made the decision to make resources available to give the community peace of mind that help was on the ground," he said.
"We continue to provide medical care through our emergency and primary health services."
The not-for-profit RFDSSE has been focused on helping meet the COVID-19 vaccination needs of communities of western and far west NSW, its traditional stomping ground.
But at the request of the federal government, it has also ventured into other regions impacted by what RFDSSE General Manager Health Services Jenny Beach calls a "hideous disease".
She confirmed pop-up clinics had been conducted in the Upper Hunter, New England and Jervis Bay regions.
"Our focus remains on rural and remote communities where we can go with a whole of community approach," Ms Beach said.
"We've worked closely with local health districts and Aboriginal health and medical services to make that happen," she said.
RFDSSE Health Services Manager Dubbo Sally Loughnan has been organising pop-up clinics where between 20 and 800 jabs are delivered in a day depending on the location and size of the communities hosting them.
"This is a vital service for communities who may have otherwise had limited access to the vaccine, " she said.
"Ultimately it keeps people healthy and out of our planes and out of hospitals."
The RFDSSE will continue to run COVID vaccination clinics for "several months" in order to meet demand.
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