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Dental Tribune Asia Pacific Edition | 6/2017 ASIA PACIFIC NEWS 03 Australia: Royal Flying Doctor Service receives funding boost The Royal Flying Doctor Service pro- vides emergency and essential health care to many of Australia’s remote communities. AD By DTI CAIRNS, Australia: The Royal Fly- ing Doctor Service of Australia (RFDS) has long provided much- needed medical assistance to many of the expansive country’s most remote communities. Dr David Gillespie, Assistant Minis- ter for Health, has announced that the Australian federal govern- ment will commit A$11 million in funding to the not-for-profit or- ganisation so that it can continue to offer dental services to these regions. Established in 1928 by Rev. John Flynn, the RFDS utilises its fleet of 66 aircraft to offer both emergency and essential health care to Aus- tralian residents who are unable to access these services via more com- mon modes of transport. It is funded through a combination of donations and financial support from the Australian government’s RFDS programme. It holds an im- portant place in Australia’s medical services sector and was described by former Prime Minister Sir Rob- ert Menzies as “perhaps the single greatest contribution to the effec- tive settlement of the far distant country that we have witnessed in our time”. “The Royal Flying Doctor Ser- vice is well-placed to provide these essential mobile outreach dental services in rural and remote Aus- tralia,” said Gillespie in a state- ment. “Today we deliver on our election commitment to ensure people outside our major cities have better access to high-quality dental services.” Martin Laverty, CEO of RFDS, welcomed the funding and took the opportunity to highlight the disparity in dentist numbers be- tween urban and remote areas. “There are only one-third the dentists in remote areas, with 72 dentists per 100,000 people in major cities, and less than 23 per 100,000 people in remote areas,” said Laverty. “When people from remote areas visit the dentist, they are more likely to require acute intervention—1 in 3 had a tooth extraction in a year, com- pared with less than 1 in 10 in metropolitan areas.” “This funding from the Fed- eral Government will enable the Flying Doctor to expand its dental outreach programme to start tackling the disparity that exists between city and the bush—and for that we are very, very thank- ful,” he added. - m a r e C N ® c i r t e T d n a w o F - N ® c l i r t e T h t i w d e r a p m o C * Tetric® N-Ceram Bulk Fill The efficient posterior composite Save 55% on time* and achieve amazing results N O W A S A F L O W ! . t s e u q e r n o l e b a I v o c e r L I G HT I N I i n ® R O T I A T T E N TED P A l i a v a a t a D Tetric® N-Ceram Bulk Fill Tetric® N-Flow Bulk Fill sculptable flowable www.ivoclarvivadent.com Ivoclar Vivadent AG Bendererstr. 2 | 9494 Schaan | Liechtenstein | Tel.: +423 235 35 35 | Fax: +423 235 33 60 © UnknownLatitude Images/Shutterstock.com