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Speaker 1: You may have heard care Flight here in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: They've now been operating for ten years in the territory

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Speaker 1: and what a phenomenal job they do. Joining me on

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Speaker 1: the line right now is care Flight NT General Manager

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Speaker 1: Philip Roberts Ghetto.

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Speaker 2: Philip, Good morning, Katy, and good morning to your listeners.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time. Ten years of operation

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Speaker 1: in the territory. No doubt it has been very interesting

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Speaker 1: ten years.

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Speaker 2: Definitely has been. I mean it's worth noting, Katie that

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Speaker 2: we actually started up here in the territory in two

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Speaker 2: thousand and seven with our GET operations, and then we

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Speaker 2: we had some helicopters up here as well. Yeap, while

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Speaker 2: we're celebrating today at the beginning the formal commencement of

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Speaker 2: the contract with the Non Territory Health to begin to

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Speaker 2: deliver the top end medical retrieval service, and porter's got

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Speaker 2: a bit overtaker by events with the COVID outbreak, etc.

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Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I was going to say, it's probably been

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Speaker 1: a little bit more difficult to, you know, to sort

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Speaker 1: of celebrate that given the situation that COVID's put us

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Speaker 1: all in well.

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Speaker 2: Here flight man, we have to we unfortunately post and

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Speaker 2: our Christmas party, so that we would have been the

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Speaker 2: opportunity to do it, but we'll have that early next

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Speaker 2: year sometimes.

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Speaker 1: So tell us a little bit more about, you know,

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Speaker 1: some of the work that has happened in that period

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Speaker 1: of time, because like you've said there, you know you started,

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Speaker 1: the way that you started has then indeed expanded greatly

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Speaker 1: in recent years.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. For me, one of the key things, and I

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Speaker 2: think your listeners would be that we've created jobs in

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Speaker 2: the territory. So over time, care fighters grow on and

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Speaker 2: started doing a lot more things. For example, we deliver

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Speaker 2: their medical services to these resource companies and two US Marines.

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Speaker 2: But what that actually means is just more jobs for territorians.

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Speaker 2: So you know, we've got four engineering apprentices at at present.

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Speaker 2: You know some of our we've trained sort of ten

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Speaker 2: of our critical pair flight nurses scholarship programs to become midwives.

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Speaker 2: So's those sorts of stories that are ready key, I think,

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Speaker 2: because it means we've developed that workforce in the non territory.

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Speaker 1: And then when you when you look at sort of

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Speaker 1: how many kilometers you've covered over the years and how

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Speaker 1: many different things those you know, those different people who

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Speaker 1: work for care flight have have had to go out

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Speaker 1: to and how many territorians have actually helped as well.

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Speaker 1: I would imagine that there's some pretty big numbers there.

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Speaker 2: Film Ah, there definitely is. I mean, undermate, it's all

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Speaker 2: about the patient. So we transport over seven thousand patients

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Speaker 2: a year and our team has really focused on providing

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Speaker 2: the best possible patient care so that you know, obviously

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Speaker 2: to territorians and people in remote settings, but it's also

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Speaker 2: that the visitors come to the territory as well.

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Speaker 1: And has there been a bit of reflecting over the

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Speaker 1: last few days and some discussions amongst the staff about

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Speaker 1: some of the more complicated rescues that you've been out to.

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Speaker 2: Unfortunately, not a lot more thinking about how hot it

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Speaker 2: is and how fatigued people are having had to do

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Speaker 2: this response, you know, working in PPU and you know

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Speaker 2: it's a shout out to all the health workers and

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Speaker 2: everyone else providing a response. It is hard work to

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Speaker 2: do that in PPU wearing those effectively, you know, you're

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Speaker 2: walking around in a bin bag effectively and having to

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Speaker 2: do pretty complex work, really taxing thing to do. So

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Speaker 2: actually we've been seeing a lot more time thinking about

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Speaker 2: that and trying to get our crew how we can

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Speaker 2: work to get our crews sort of dealing with that fatigue,

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Speaker 2: as I'm sure many others are doing around the territory.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, how difficult is it dealing with that fatigue

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Speaker 1: at the moment.

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Speaker 2: Look, it's something we're very very conscious of and we

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Speaker 2: just try and do as much as we can basically,

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Speaker 2: and that's about people doing those missions and being given

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Speaker 2: time to recover, about trying to get into air conditioning

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Speaker 2: as much as possible. It's about using drinking shaved ice.

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Speaker 2: All those sorts of elements that we've been working on

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Speaker 2: over the part to understand better over the last two

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Speaker 2: years has all come into play now. So I'm not

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Speaker 2: going to lie. It's very tricky to sort of manage

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Speaker 2: all those sort of different crews and the time and

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Speaker 2: the fact that that comes into play. That we've managed

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Speaker 2: to do it and people have been really understanding and

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Speaker 2: been prepared to go that extra yard.

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Speaker 1: Well, and by the sounds of it, COVID has had

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Speaker 1: quite the impact in that sense.

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Speaker 2: Yes, you know, and we're very much part of the

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Speaker 2: territory system and so we know that, you know, had

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Speaker 2: to impact across the board, and we're very very happy

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Speaker 2: to play our part in that. Well.

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Speaker 1: Phil, lovely to speak to you this morning. We really

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Speaker 1: appreciate your time and we'll all the very best for

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Speaker 1: care Flight into the future.

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Speaker 2: Yes, thanks very much, Katie. We really appreciate your support

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Speaker 2: over the years and so thanks to all your listeners

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Speaker 2: as well.

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Speaker 1: No worries and we think CareFlight do a tremendous job,

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Speaker 1: so thank you. Thanks for all the work that you

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Speaker 1: do within the community and helping you know, people are

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Speaker 1: at really difficult times.

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Speaker 2: Okay, thanks Katie, thank you.