THE Royal Flying Doctor Service Central Operations will celebrate its single biggest investment when it officially opens a $13 million aeromedical facility at Adelaide Airport tomorrow.

Located just off Tapleys Hill Rd, the RFDS is the first tenant at what will ultimately become an aeromedical precinct for all members of retrieval services, including MedStar.

The two-storey development, entirely funded through fundraising and donations, was part of a $90 million capital investment, announced by the RFDS three years ago.

“The new Adelaide base is the single biggest investment by RFDS Central Operations into the wellbeing of all South Australians,” RFDS Central Operations chairman David Hills said.

“It is a world-class aeromedical facility — the start of a new era — which will enable the RFDS to deliver enhanced patient care and comfort for decades to come.”

The headquarters — “future-proofed” for at least 30 years — bring together about 100 operational and administrative RFDS staff who previously worked out of different locations, including the administration office on Henley Beach Rd, Mile End.

Operational since early September, the facility has all the mod-cons required to make the transfer of about 20 patients a day — often in trying situations — as efficient and comfortable as possible.

A key element of the new facility is its spatial design response to operational functionality and RFDS cultural alignment.

“Purpose built to meet the unique needs of our work, the 24/7 patient transfer facility has been designed and equipped to complement any new hospital, while the base is providing a modern and safe workplace for our staff and health service delivery partners working around the clock,” Mr Hills said.

“Operational efficiencies and capacity are also being generated by replacing outdated premises and co-locating all RFDS staff previously spread across two Adelaide locations.”

Senior base engineer Craig van Cooten, whose team of seven is responsible for the maintenance of the RFDS’s extensive fleet of Pilatus PC-12 turboprop aeroplanes, said the new hangar could comfortably house six PC-12s and was perfectly equipped to maintain aircraft.

“The previous hangar (located in the general aviation area at the airport) was never designed as a maintenance facility — it was designed as a storage facility for aircraft,” he said.

“Through the years it had been modified and adapted, pushed and prodded, and moulded into a maintenance facility.

“We also have the capacity to conduct patient transfers inside the hangar during inclement weather, hot or cold.”

Other key aspects of the facility include a videoconferencing room, medical simulation area, two administrative areas, boardroom, executive offices, and multiple training and meeting rooms.

Features of the patient transfer facility include time-critical design factors such as private patient management bays with resuscitation capability, multiple undercover ambulance parking bays and two-way tarmac access for RFDS and SA Ambulance crews.

All the care rooms — the main facility is capable of holding up to eight patients at a time — are plumbed for oxygen and suction, while an in-site ceiling hoist system is able to manoeuvre bariatric or disabled patients off stretchers with a sling and safely transfer them into the bathroom.

The state-of-the-art, often subtle, offerings of the new facility are in stark contrast to the previous RFDS headquarters, which, havin been called home since 1991, could kindly be described as durable.

Senior flight nurse Vikki Denny, who was essential in the planning process, says the “chalk and cheese” cliche is inevitable when comparing the old and new bases.

She said the new facility would help the RFDS attract and retain quality staff during the decades to come.

“If someone came in here from a purely nursing point of view, saw our patient transfer area, they’d be incredibly impressed — you can’t not be,” she said.

To celebrate 88 years of service and the opening of the new aeromedical facility, The Advertiser will publish a special 28-page liftout this Saturday.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service magazine includes all the details of the new facility, history of the service, rescue stories and an inside into the life of a flying doctor.