In 2025, CareFlight crews supported more than 8,000 people through aeromedical retrievals across Australia's Top End, marking one of the service's busiest years on record.

CareFlight, the Northern Territory's leading aeromedical retrieval service, has recorded one of its busiest years, flying nearly three million kilometres and logging over 6,000 flight hours to connect patients to urgent care. From island communities and pastoral properties to remote highways and national parks, retrieval teams worked alongside NT Health, remote clinics and emergency partners to move patients quickly and safely around the region.

Jodie Mills Mitchell, general manager, CareFlight NT, says the scale of activity in 2025 reflected the Territory's diverse landscape and the strength of local partnerships: “Aeromedical retrieval is most effective when it is coordinated end to end. Our role is to work closely with NT Health, remote clinics and emergency services so patients move quickly and safely from remote locations to hospitals. For thousands of Territorians, emergency medical care doesn't begin in a hospital, it begins in the hands of our dedicated remote area nurses, aboriginal health practitioners and doctors. It's only after this critical intervention that Careflight carries the care of these patients through to the hospitals of the NT.”

Every day, CareFlight crews' complete life-changing missions. In 2025 this included a range of unique fixed‑wing retrievals, including a bull‑riding incident at a regional event where a rider sustained serious injuries. The remote clinic staff stabilised this patient prior to CareFlight's medical team, transferring the patient to hospital for further treatment.

On another mission, the CareFlight NT rescue helicopter, powered by Viva Energy, was deployed to Kakadu after reports of an unconscious woman in a remote location. With dense scrub and limited access, a flight nurse and doctor were winched in and worked alongside Kakadu rangers and clinic staff to locate and extract the patient by small boat before handover to road ambulance.

But it isn't just the crew who make these missions possible. Behind every flight is coordination on the ground that ensures patients can be connected to hospital care as fast as possible. In 2025, CareFlight's logistics coordination centre handled more than 200,000 calls, activating aircraft, supporting remote clinics and coordinating urgent responses across the Top End.

Building capability across the Northern Territory's frontline remained a focus throughout the year, as did deepening partnerships with First Nations communities. CareFlight delivered 42 clinical education courses to 408 participants, including emergency responders, clinic staff and community first responders. At the same time, flight nurses advanced through midwifery programmes, critical care registrars took part in a rigorous induction programme and continued educational experiences, and patient transport officers graduated as qualified paramedics, strengthening local capacity across agencies and communities.

CareFlight launched the first in a series of in‑language community education Videos, designed to equip remote Northern Territory communities with lifesaving trauma‑response skills in the languages they speak every day. This initiative works alongside the National Safety and Quality Health Service “Patient Rights” information delivered in nine First Nations languages on board aircraft, providing culturally appropriate communication tools that support clearer, safer care during time‑critical events and help patients and families feel informed throughout their journey.

CareFlight's clinical governance and safety systems were recognised with a Triple Commendation under the National Safety and Quality Health Service standards, reflecting the collaborative effort that underpins retrieval and patient transport across the NT.

Ms Mills Mitchell says the organisation's focus in 2025 remained firmly on patient‑centred care, cultural respect and collaborative practice: “These outcomes show what can be achieved when clinicians, communities and partner agencies work together with a shared purpose. CareFlight remains focused on delivering reliable, high‑quality retrieval and transport services for the people who depend on us every day.”