Many years ago while I was in America I got sick. I mean really sick.

A very small wound that I had on my foot decided it liked the local bugs and offered them a warm and cosy home in which to live and breed. Unfortunately it turned into the movie Animal House and my immune system was unable to stop the food fight.

It ended with a paramedic at Denver Airport, that my then wife had the Pilots call en route from New York, telling me that if I got on the next plane to fly home they'd probably take me off in a body bag.

Common sense prevailed and my one and only trip in an ambulance ended with me in hospital in Denver with acute sepsis and a fairly grim prognosis.

While I spent the next few days on antibiotics and drifting in and out of lucidity my wife and the travel insurance company explored all options available, one of which was medivacing me back to Australia with a medical team to look after me if I recovered sufficiently to fly. The price tag for this was $250k.

Fortunately it wasn't needed, firstly because the antibiotics after a week or so did the trick and I recovered fairly quickly once I stabilised, and secondly because the insurance company ended up denying my claim.

Fast forward 10 years or so and I was having a chat with David Watson, owner of Ambulance Private Tasmania and Targa Tasmania driver extraordinaire.

David had asked Resilience to revamp his website and I recounted my story after noticing that they offer international patient transport as a service. David explained that the $250k price tag for my situation was normal in his industry because a private plane had to be chartered and that and the costs of accompanying medical staff doesn't come cheap.

Fortunately for his international patient movements he had come up with a cheaper solution. By utilising his contacts and relationships within the medical and aviation industries he developed a way to transport patients safely on commercial flights with the same standard of care. Talk about game changers - now patients can be moved internationally for a fraction of the previous cost.

It's the way they handle everything - innovatively, personally, professionally and using best practice methods.

You've probably seen the Ambulance Private fleet hundreds of times out there moving patients to and from hospitals, medical appointments and their homes but haven't given it much thought.

That's the way they like it - maximum service and minimum fuss. Their patient transfer services are local, interstate and international and they also provide corporate and sporting event first aid services.

Here's their revamped web site: https://www.ambulanceprivate.com.au