Above and beyond the call of duty

JOHN Jesky (left), chairman of the Pennine Acute Trust, with Commanding Officer Kerry Trow (right) and members of the Territorial Army 207 (Manchester) Field Hospital volunteers.

MEDICAL staff at the Pennine Acute Trust who volunteer with the Territorial Army (TA) were thanked for their hard work at a special presentation event.

Commanding Officer Colonel Kerry Trow and other representatives from the 207 (Manchester) Field Hospital visited the Trust to present a commemorative print to honour and thank the work that the Trust and its staff do to support the TA.

Several members of Trust hospital staff volunteer as reservist medics with the Territorial Army Medical Services Unit.

These include Captain Tracey Heath (A and E nurse), and Colonel Deepak Bhatnagar (Consultant/Senior Lecturer In Diabetes and Metabolism) who are both based at The Royal Oldham Hospital.

Members of ‘207’ ran the British Military Hospital in Iraq for part of 2004.

In January of this year, they returned from a four-month deployment to Afghanistan where they ran the Military Hospital in Camp Bastion.

The Bastion hospital is staffed by TA medic units on a three-month rotation with the regular Army, so medical services can be sustained without having an adverse impact on the NHS in the UK.

Commanding Officer Colonel Trow said: “The staff from Pennine Acute Trust have made a vital contribution to our successful tour in the hospital at Camp Bastion earlier this year.

“Many were involved in providing first-class care for British and US servicemen and women in what has been reported as the busiest trauma centre in the world.”

He added: “This support is vital to reservists and makes operational deployment and their continued involvement with the TA possible.”

Mr Jesky said the Trust fully supported the “brave, dedicated and highly-skilled” staff who choose to volunteer with the TA.

He said: “We recognise and applaud the vitally-important role that our staff bring to the unit.

“And, in turn, the experience, skills and qualities that our staff develop from their involvement with the TA can be offered and transferred to colleagues to develop the services we provide to patients here.

“We are very proud of their commitment and bravery during their recent deployment and delivering the very best healthcare, in often very difficult circumstances, to not only those serving in the armed forces but also the citizens of Afghanistan.”

Royal Oldham A and E nurse Captain Heath, a member of 207 Field Hospital, said: “You still have your walking wounded, and you have your strains and sprains and chest pains.

“There's a lot of what you normally do out there, but you have traumas on top.

“We’re there to do our jobs and look after the lads.”

To learn more about service with the 207 Field Hospital, call 0161 232 4985 or email the recruiting team at: 207hosp-rhq-recruiting@mod.uk