The Medical Team

Within the New South Wales medical retrieval system, NRMA CareFlight doctors always work in a doctor/paramedic team.

Doctors

Emergency roadside surgery

NRMA CareFlight doctors are specialists or senior registrars in one of the three fields of critical care: anaesthesia, emergency medicine or intensive care. These doctors, equipped with mobile intensive care units, are able to provide hospital-standard treatment to the seriously ill and injured across NSW: they administer blood transfusions, anaesthetise and intubate patients and place them on life support systems. In the course of their operational training, our doctors learn and practise winch rescue operations, radio procedures and safety and survival. CareFlight runs a Pre-hospital Trauma Course which teaches the doctors additional skills in caring for the critically injured outside of the familiar hospital environment.

Paramedics

All paramedics who work with our doctors are employed by the Ambulance Service of New South Wales. Those who work on the ASNSW helicopters are members of the Special Casualty Access Team (SCAT) and are trained to access and treat patients at accidents scenes and in hard to reach locations such as canyons, mines and on cliff ledges. Those paramedics who work on the NRMA CareFlight helicopters are deployed exclusively on HIRT missions.