Whether it is transporting patients from hospital to hospital, by air or by road, the RFDS play a vital role in inter-hospital transfers of patients in less urgent cases in many parts of Australia. This particularly includes transferring patients from small hospitals in rural and remote areas to larger hospitals in regional centres or metropolitan areas, where more specialist services are available.

Every day RFDS Central Operations (SA/NT) conducts an average of twenty inter-hospital transfers of patients from a country hospital to a major metropolitan hospital for life-saving treatment or a higher level of care. Once a patient is admitted to a country hospital, often their condition can deteriorate or tests reveal an urgent need for specialist treatment at a major hospital.

Urgent transfers can sometimes involve organ transplant patients or a newborn baby requiring heart surgery interstate. Inter-hospital transfers are not just for people living in the country – 1 in every 20 people transferred has an Adelaide postcode. In 2014–15, RFDS Central Operations conducted 6857 inter-hospital transfers throughout South and Central Australia.

Across Australia in 2014–15, the RFDS performed 59,596 inter-hospital transfers in addition to 4336 aeromedical emergency evacuations, 332 patients transferred from clinics, and 409 repatriations.