Norwegian doctor Maria Brønstad is set to trade the snow-swept mountains of her native land for Townsville’s hot humid climate as one of LifeFlight’s newest doctors.
Dr Brønstad is one of five doctors joining LifeFlight’s Townsville base to work on board the air ambulance jet and the AW139 Queensland Government Air (QGAir) helicopter.
She recently underwent a week of intensive aeromedical training at the LifeFlight Training Academy at Brisbane Airport to prepare for her new role.
She said she was looking forward to the challenge and had brought her family over from Norway to live in Townsville while she works at LifeFlight.
“I really wanted to work at LifeFlight as it’s a renowned company with great professionals,” she said.
“I’m looking forward to learning new skills, meeting new people, and getting some new perspectives.”
Dr Brønstad, who worked as a doctor in various roles in Norway since 2013, is no stranger to retrieval medicine.
From 2016 to 2018 she worked on board the Air Ambulance at Bodø, located just north of the Artic Circle.
Her new role will see her flying across sun baked plains and often working in sweltering conditions to airlift patients from remote areas to major hospitals for urgent medical treatment.
She planned to hit the pools, beaches and waterfalls outside of work to beat the heat in what will be a ‘new work setting’.
“I worked on a fixed wing air ambulance back in Norway and have seen some beautiful landscapes there and I’m really looking forward to northern Queensland and the beautiful locations here from the helicopter.
“I’m looking forward to the nature, maybe doing some hiking, exploring the beaches around, and seeing some animals and wildlife that we don’t have where I’m from.”
Dr Brønstad said the Helicopter Underwater Escape Training (HUET) training alongside water survival skills was ‘amazing’.
“The HUET really increased my understanding of the evacuation from a helicopter and after doing it my confidence working in the helicopter is really strengthened,” she said.
“So, working in the helicopter, we need to be prepared for anything that can happen, and I really think this training, practical and theoretical, is preparing us for that.”
Dr Brønstad will join Dr Dana Andrews, Dr Ben Kings, Dr Nicole Mennie and Dr Douglas Scott in helping Queenslanders access critical care from the sky.
She is one of 29 new doctors supporting communities across the state from the southeast to northern Queensland.
LifeFlight HUET Manager Mick Dowling said the rigorous training doctors experienced was part of what attracted doctors to LifeFlight.
“The doctor training that we provide is very competitive, so we get a lot of doctors applying…because of the standard of training that they’re receiving from industry experts,” he said.
He said the HUET training was particularly challenging for doctors but was a test many relished.
“When we get the doctors first in for this training, they’re all a little bit nervous and anxious because it’s a situation they haven’t been put into previously,” he said.
“But we’ve got a softly, softly approach that we take to get them through this training and it can be quite challenging.
“It’s great watching them build confidence. They are always willing to jump in and get it done and then they’re moving on to help us out in the community with regard to their doctor skillsets.”
The intensive aeromedical academic and practical training program also included rescue winching and challenging clinical scenarios to ensure the doctors are fully prepared.
LifeFlight Medical Director Dr Jeff Hooper said doctors were prepared for a range of situations they may face in the field such as treating people injured by animals in a paddock or roadside following a motor vehicle crash.
“These are austere environments and are very different to what they are used to in the hospital system,” Dr Hooper said.
“We find that the training that we do is really intense, it’s very realistic and it means that the doctors are really ready to go for any challenge they may face in the job.”
LifeFlight is the largest employer of aeromedical doctors in the country with more than 180 medical professionals.
All doctors go through simulated scenarios at the Queensland Combined Emergency Services Academy where they put their clinical skills into practice.
LifeFlight helped 8,497 Queenslanders in the past financial year – 3.9 per cent higher than the previous year.
Townsville-based LifeFlight critical care doctors helped 1,839 people in FY25 across fixed and rotary wings.
The majority of LifeFlight critical care doctors’ work is performed on behalf of Queensland Health, tasked by Retrieval Services Queensland, within Queensland Ambulance Service.
