Children living in rural and remote Australia face significant health inequity when accessing services and treatment. This is especially true for Aboriginal families living in rural and remote Australia, where compounding barriers create significant access issues when faced with getting lifesaving treatment from Major Cities, far from their community, home and land.

Medical Wings flies doctors to deliver clinics in partnership with local hospitals, Aboriginal Medical Centres, primary health clinics and Immigration Centres to ensure rural and regional families are able to access healthcare support they need in a culturally safe and welcoming environment.

We aim to present the viability and future of programs such as Medical Wings for rural healthcare access in the future through the findings of a PwC Report, which found that Medical Wings generated $38 Million in economic benefits in the FY22, providing $295,000 in benefits per mission, which costs $1800 to fly. Over the year, Medical Wings delivered 129 clinics across regional and remote New South Wales and currently supports 3,200 families across regional and remote NSW. The program further benefits families, communities and the health system by increasing opportunities for treatment through:

- increased access to healthcare services and utilisation,
- improving family well-being through decreased travel and reducing anxiety related to health access and treatment,
- alleviating economic burden through decreased travel costs, allowing parents and carers to stay within communities to work or otherwise, and
- strengthening the healthcare system through building capacity within the health workforce and reducing inappropriate use of paediatric hospital beds in rural and remote.

In recent years, Aboriginal families have become 30% of Little Wings clients, demonstrating that our program is a viable, culturally-safe healthcare access model that can further Indigenous wellbeing, especially children.