Mothers in the Blue Mountains complained recently about giving birth in the back of ambulances but mums in places further west such as Walgett and Lightning Ridge were forced to deliver during emergency flights.

This was the uncomfortable situation mums faced, according to the Royal Flying Doctor Service’s south-east Australian executive director, Clyde Thomson.

“A lot of the GPs won’t deliver babies because the insurance is prohibitive,” he said.

“We’re constantly evacuating people in the early stages of labour.”

More than half of the flying doctors’ 1400 evacuations in western NSW were where patients had not been admitted to hospitals.

“When the governments close something or a GP leaves, we fill the gaps,” said Capt Thomson, a Broken Hill man.

Former Rural Doctors Association of NSW president, Les Woollard, Moree, said there were 130 obstetric GPs in rural NSW who delivered 8000 to 9000 babies annually compared to more than 300 in 1991 delivering 12,000 babies.

Mr Thomson, who has more than 30 years of experience with the service, said the “gaps” were growing.

It was hoped another plane would be added to the service in western NSW by September.