Australia’s Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) has been awarded a 10-year contract worth about A$625 million to provide aeromedical retrieval and patient transfer services across the Northern Territory’s Top End, Big Rivers and East Arnhem regions.

The RFDS South Australia/Northern Territory division (SA/NT) will operate the Top End Medical Retrieval Service (TEMRS) following a competitive procurement process led by the Northern Territory Government. The fully integrated aeromedical retrieval and road patient transfer service will operate from Darwin, Katherine and Gove, caring for more than 4,500 patients every year, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Under the contract, the RFDS will introduce aircraft to replace the current ageing fleet. It will partner with specialist rotary-wing operator Toll Aviation, a division of Toll Group.

Steve Edgington, Northern Territory Minister for Health, says: “Aeromedical retrieval services are essential in the Northern Territory, where distance and geography can make accessing urgent and specialist healthcare particularly challenging.”

Tony Vaughan ASM, chief executive of RFDS SA/NT, adds: “We’re proud and honoured to deliver the next chapter of aeromedical and patient transport services for our Top End, Big Rivers and East Arnhem communities, working alongside NT Health, our rotary-wing partner Toll Aviation and service-delivery partners as one seamless service.”

CareFlight has operated TEMRS since 2011. It will remain a partner of NT Health through its other contracts, providing inter-hospital road transfers between Palmerston Regional Hospital and Royal Darwin Hospital, as well as interstate aeromedical evacuation services from the Top End.

The award builds on the RFDS’s 87-year history in the Territory, which includes aeromedical bases in Alice Springs and Darwin and a patient transfer facility in Tennant Creek. The organisation also provides aeromedical retrieval services across the Central Australia and Barkly regions.

Over the coming months, RFDS teams will work closely with NT Health, Toll Aviation, CareFlight and other service-delivery partners on detailed workforce, operational and service continuity planning. Recruitment for clinical, aviation, operational and support positions will begin shortly, with CareFlight employees among those invited to apply. The service arrangements will commence on 1 July 2027.