Judith Barker is new RFDS Western Operation CEO

This led her to join the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) Western Operation as the organisation's new chief executive in October.

She brings more than 25 years of experience in health and emergency services to the role, including six years as a paramedic and more than 10 years with South Australia's Ambulance Service, where she was chief operating officer and director of service performance and improvement.

Employing about 400 doctors, flight nurses, pilots, logistics co-ordinators, engineers and support teams across the State, Ms Barker spoke to Farm Weekly about her plans to continue to strengthen the RFDS role of not only providing emergency medical services to remote and rural communities, but also health preventative measures so that people don't have to call the RFDS on the worst day of their life.

QUESTION: What did you want to be when you were younger?

Answer: My problem was I wanted to be everything - from a school teacher, to an author, to working in public relations, but it wasn't until my early 20s that I started to get a bit more direction.

After I finished high school I did a bachelor of arts degree because everybody else was doing it.

I chose English literature because I liked books, but the pathways that degree provided me with didn't really inspire me.

I knew conceptually that I wanted to help people and I remember sitting at a set of lights at Victoria Park when an ambulance drove past and it was like a light bulb moment where I thought 'I can do that'.

I wanted to help people, I didn't want to sit in an office and I wanted to be doing something that was health and people focused and that was what made me become a paramedic.

Q: What did your parents work as and how did your upbringing influence your decision to become involved in the healthcare sector?

A: When I joined St John WA my dad, Bob Barker, was my boss as he was the St John service director.

About 12 months after I became a paramedic my brother became a paramedic too and he is still a paramedic in Broome.

My mum had been an enrolled nurse and a dental health technician and, like so many other women, once she had us kids she became a housewife and it wasn't until we hit high school that she went off and got a career within the non-for-profit social services areas.

Both my parents have very much been about giving back to the community in their own careers, so I think that influenced me too.

Q: Did you have any connections to the regions growing up?

A: I grew up in Perth but all of my family, besides my dad and stepmom, live in the regions.

My brother is in the Kimberley, my nephews are in the Pilbara and Geraldton and I have family and friends in the Wheatbelt and the south of the State as well.

I think they appreciate my new role with the RFDS.

Thankfully none of my family have had to use RFDS but I do know that all of them depend on it.

Q: From 1997 to 2003 you were a paramedic for six years with St John Ambulance WA.

Can you tell me what you remember about this experience?

A: For me it was life changing.

I grew up in a very nice house with a very nice family and had a good upbringing and I think everyone says to you when you become a paramedic - 'oh it must be hard to see the blood'.

That's not the eye-opening part of it - it's the exposure to all of the people you didn't know when you grew up in your bubble.

It's all of the different ways of life, all of the different cultures and everything that shaped people to be where they are.

The biggest skill a paramedic has is communication, so for me it was a huge growing up experience - to meet all those people who were so different to who I was and how I had lived my life.

You can't walk in with any judgment of a person and how their situation came to be so the job really develops your sense of empathy.

Q: What are some of the biggest challenges paramedics are facing today and how do you think they can be supported?

A: Paramedics are filling a lot of gaps within the health system and the RFDS is similar.

Back when I started, people would call for an ambulance because it was the worst day of their life and they needed that ambulance.

Now they often call because they don't know what else to do or how to access the health system.

A lot of people are acutely unwell with chronic conditions, so our paramedics are stepping into the fold and filling that gap with more primary healthcare.

The fatigue for paramedics is tough so there is a real need for them to look after their physical health, as that will also help their mental health.

It was important to me that I had the right people to talk to and listen.

When I did those really tough, impactful jobs, I had two or three key people - one of them was my dad and one of them was a fellow paramedic, who I could pick up the phone and talk to.

It's really important for friends and family to monitor the paramedic or the police officer and watch out for signs that they aren't well or struggling and to step in and ask them if they are OK and if they need help.

You can also reach out to different organisations to get advice on what help they may need if you see someone struggling.

After years of COVID all of our frontline workers are really tired, so it's important that we look after them.

Q: You previously volunteered as a non-executive advisory board member for Fortem Australia - an organisation that provides specialist wellbeing and mental fitness support to first responder families.

Can you tell me about how this organisation came to be?

A: Fortem came about after an inquiry by Beyond Blue into the police and emergency services and the issues those frontline workers face and how that impacts their mental health.

So Fortem was working with the heads of all of the emergency services across Australia about being proactive and putting things in place to help those people with their mental health, resilience and wellbeing.

Q: You went on to hold roles with the SA Ambulance Service as an area clinical team leader, manager of patient services, operations manager and director of service performance and improvement before becoming the chief executive officer of St John Ambulance NT in March 2018.

What differences did you notice in how each of the State ambulance services are run between the States?

Are there any changes you think WA should adopt from our other States and Territories?

A: Ambulance services across Australia are really collegiate.

They are happy to work together and also look across the fence to see what might work for their own services and what won't.

Going from WA to South Australia and then up to the Northern Territory - it was there that I saw the inequality in access to healthcare for rural and remote people.

I saw what the distances mean, what the remote workforce means and what it means to get access to a specialist.

In the NT a lot of the time you have to leave the territory to get access to a specialist or certain healthcare, so that's tough and it plays a big role in people's outcomes.

The big lesson everyone can learn is that it's about designing systems in partnership with rural and remote communities and listening to what it is they need and where they need it.

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Rural and remote people are practical and understand that they are not going to get the same level of healthcare in Perth as they would out at Fitzroy.

They tend to know what they need that will keep them well and in their area and what can be put in place for prevention.

You need to co-design these types of services rather than try and do it to or for them.

Q: How familiar were you with the RFDS before you became the organisation's CEO?

A: I had worked alongside the RFDS my whole career, so I knew what they did when it came to moving patients around the State and responding to those big remote incidents, like at Horizontal Falls.

I was also aware of RFDS' medical chests, which people living at remote sites can apply to become a custodian of.

Inside the medical chests are antibiotics, all sorts of medications, bandages, splints and an amazing amount of healthcare, so that in the event of an emergency you can call an RFDS doctor who will tell you what you need from that medical chest and prescribe and treat you over the phone.

My brother lived on a station outside of Kalgoorlie for years so I knew what that medical chest meant to him and the people who lived on the station.

At times, that was the only way they could get the treatment they needed.

I had also heard about the primary healthcare clinics that our amazing RFDS nurses and doctors conduct.

They go out to stations, the regions and visit remote Aboriginal communities to conduct clinics and primary healthcare.

Whether it's women's health, dentistry or just GP services.

That's something I'm really keen to go along and watch our team do.

Q: What prompted you to apply for the chief executive position with the RFDS?

A: I had been working with ambulance services for years and it had been a fantastic career, so I wanted to stay in the health sector but do something a bit different that had a rural and remote approach.

I like that the RFDS helps close the gap on some of the rural primary health concerns.

I think it was my experience in the NT that gave me that attraction to rural and remote health.

Q: Are there any changes planned for the RFDS in the coming year?

A: We are now at the end of our strategic cycle, so our executive team and board are about to embark on a plan for the next 12 months.

We have some exciting projects in the wings when it comes to primary health and getting out and engaging with the community.

There will be a lot of change in the way we partner with people and move into that primary health space and the services we deliver - so watch this space.

Q: Can you tell me about some of the other prevention type work that the RFDS does?

A: The RFDS is there for people on the worst day of their life.

We fly to Broome to bring a baby back down to Perth that needs urgent care, or to Horizontal Falls because there's been a tragic accident there.

But what people don't necessarily appreciate is that we also run primary health clinics - so we're making sure that women get the right help and people get the right dental treatment, because if you don't get the right dental treatment that can lead to cardiac issues.

We're also part of mental health clinics and deliver GP services in the hope that people won't have to call us on the worst day of their life because we've been there putting things in place to help them with their health generally.

Q: Is there a particular patient's story that has stood out to you at the RFDS?

A: I was talking to one of our pilots who told me about when he picked up a mother in the Kimberley who was in premature labour, struggling and he transported her to Darwin.

He said often you didn't find out what impact you had on a patient's journey.

Twelve months later the same pilot and nurse picked up a baby that had a chest infection and needed to be evacuated, but was going to be OK.

He later discovered it was the baby of the mother they had transported to Darwin.

It was a chubby beautiful baby that had been born at 27 weeks.

He said it was amazing to know that that baby had been born and had received the right care thanks to the RFDS.

Our nurses, doctors and pilots always want to hear those good news stories.

Q: What would you most like to achieve in your role as the RFDS's new chief executive?

A: The RFDS is such an important organisation for WA and Australia and I am so proud that I get to be a part of it.

For me it's important to make sure that whatever I do with the RFDS, I remember who it is we are here for, and that is the people of WA - wheather they live or are travelling rural or remote.

Q: If you could have one superpower what would it be and why?

A: They always say hindsight is a wonderful thing, so I would love to be able to see into the future and know what the impact of a decision will be.

It would be great to know that you are doing the right thing.