Caring and serving

TA medics prepare for Afghan deployment

A PAIR of lifesaving Oldham medics and members of the Territorial Army are preparing to head out to Afghanistan.

Colonel Deepak Bhatnagar (58), who works at the Royal Oldham Hospital, and Captain Janet Mills (50), from Chadderton, serve with the 207 Field Hospital (Volunteers), which is scheduled to deploy to Helmand Province in the latter part of the year.

The pair will join other volunteers set to take control of the state-of-the-art British military hospital at Camp Bastion, which cares for servicemen and women injured on the frontline, and is packed with cutting-edge medical equipment.

It is manned by Territorial Army medics — medical professionals who lead double lives, serving in the Army in their spare time from normal civilian jobs, generally in NHS hospitals or other medical practices.

Col Bhatnagar, a father-of-two from Cheadle Hulme, works as a consultant at the Royal Oldham Hospital.

He is a director of research and development at Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust and is a senior lecturer at the University of Manchester.

He has also been in the Territorial Army for 26 years, with operational tours in Iraq and Afghanistan already under his belt.

He said: “The British military field hospital probably provides the best care anywhere in the NHS.

“It is really, really palpable. I have seen it develop and evolve in the last five years.

“We are doing medicine out of the ordinary.

“If you ask any soldier, they do not want to use medics, but there is reassurance that they are there.

“You feel as if you are looking after family, which gives it a completely different ethos. It makes you stronger and more confident, which is reflected in your daytime NHS job.”

Capt Mills, a heart failure specialist nurse working for North Manchester General Hospital at Crumpsall, has served in the TA for five years.

Capt Mills said: “We are just like a normal hospital, however, the type of patients coming through can be intense, with horrific injuries.

“My family are quite apprehensive, but I am fulfilling a role, I am part of a team and we will do a good job when we are out there.

“You are serving your country but you are also caring for soldiers fighting for their country, so this is giving something back to them.

“My workmates always ask me what I have been doing. They think I am quite brave.”

The men and women of 207 Field Hospital, which is one of two TA field hospitals in North-West England, expect to get the call to man the Helmand hospital for up to three months and, in preparation, the unit is now deep into a pre-deployment training programme.

207 Field Hospital has its headquarters in Stretford, Manchester, and additional training bases in Blackburn, Bury, Ashton and Stockport.

Anyone interested in joining the TA as a medic should call 0161-232 4985 or send an e-mail to tamedical@btconnect.com