Underprepared grey nomads touring the outback — sometimes with significant illnesses — have contributed to a Queensland flying doctor base recording its busiest two months ever.

Key points: RFDS research shows consistency across rural and remote Australia that aeromedical retrievals are increasing for older people

RFDS research shows consistency across rural and remote Australia that aeromedical retrievals are increasing for older people The service says factors at play include more older travellers and aging regional communities

The service says factors at play include more older travellers and aging regional communities Medical emergencies involving tourists with existing health problems is also trending upwards

And the Charleville Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) base is on track for its busiest year yet with over 1,200 flight hours already recorded this year.

Over the same period last year the crew, based 900 kilometres west of Brisbane, had only flown 1,080 hours.

"For the last three months we've exceeded our previous months' records," said Charleville manager of clinical and base operations, Joanne Mahony.

"It's actually the flying time that that has increased each month."

An increase in RFDS flights for older patients is a trend across the country.

"It's pretty consistent throughout rural and remote Australia that our aeromedical retrievals are increasing for older people," said Dr Fergus Gardiner, the director of research and policy at the RFDS.

The Charleville base looks like it will recording its busiest year yet, with 1,200 flight hours already recorded for the year. ( Supplied: Royal Flying Doctors Service )

He said there were a couple of factors at play — more older travellers and aging regional communities.

"From 2014 to 2017, we conducted just under 22,000 aeromedical retrievals for those aged 65 years or above," Dr Gardiner said.

"About 18,000 of these were non-Indigenous, and just under 4,000 were Indigenous. We suspect it's related to an aging population."

Between 2014 and 2017, the RFDS conducted over 900 retrievals for heart attacks.

"So those are very acute cases that you can't often prepare for, really," Dr Gardiner said.

"The next on the list was fractures, fractures of the femur often related to falls and trips and those sorts of things."

Outback tourism success

On top of a severe flu season, a rise in outback tourism has been keeping the Charleville RFDS team busy.

"There's a lot of tourists, a lot more tourists, especially in the last few years that have been passing through," Ms Mahony said.

"But this year's been particularly busy with tourists passing through western Queensland."

The RFDS is often called to accidents on remote cattle properties, landing on gravel airstrips and treating people in the field. ( Supplied: Royal Flying Doctors Service )

With a lack of health services available in small grazing communities, when passing travellers become unwell, particularly those with chronic illnesses, the RFDS is radioed in.

Over the past 10 years, the Charleville RFDS base has seen a 45 per cent increase in aeromedical flights.

Travellers in the 'last month of their life'

The increase in medical emergencies involving tourists with existing health problems is a trend throughout the region.

"We see it all the time, and it never ceases to amaze me how people have their expectations of what's going to be available in the remote outback," said Dr Clare Walker, president of the Rural Doctors Association of Queensland.

"It doesn't necessarily match the reality.

"We see a lot of people with significant illnesses, sometimes even in the last month of their life, travelling to some seriously remote places with very few services and without very much preparation."

The outback Queensland region welcomed 965,000 visitors in the year ending March 2019. ( ABC Southern Queensland: Nathan Morris )

The biggest cohort of tourists to outback Queensland are from interstate, growing by over 12 per cent over the past three years.

Dr Walker also said a lot of them were not properly insured.

"Sometimes they get picked up and taken out by the flying doctors and they've left behind a spouse that can't drive a vehicle," she said.

"They can't afford to tow and they get into all sorts of trouble."

In Longreach, where Dr Walker is based, there has been significant jump in presentations by out-of-towners.

"The numbers through the Longreach hospital emergency department has been somewhere around the range of 20 per cent in the last month above what we did last year," Dr Walker said.

"And I think a lot of that has been tourists."

$40,000 for final flight home

Relocating people with serious medical conditions can be expensive.

"Just recently, we had a traveller from interstate who was very unwell and he ended up paying $40,000 for a care flight to get him interstate, back home with loved ones, for the last stages of his life," Dr Walker said.

"I've actually seen that more this year than I have done in the past. There's been a few patients that have said that this was on their bucket list — the Birdsville races, or this or that."

The Big Red Bash music festival near Birdsville is one event that draws tens of thousands of people. ( ABC Southern Queensland: Nathan Morris )

She encouraged anyone from interstate heading west with medical conditions that needed treatment to be prepared.

"If someone comes to us and they have a heart attack we can fly them with the flying doctors to Brisbane, but that's where the service for the state ends," Dr Walker said.

Aging regional towns

Dr Walker said the severe drought that much of the region continues to face has seen many young people leave.

The RFDS employs over 400 people across Queensland. ( Supplied: Royal Flying Doctors Service )

"The families and the younger folk are generally the ones that have moved away, certainly from the central-west region, when there's been less work because of the drought," she said.

"[It] does mean that our average age is even higher.