An RAF medic operates a Direct Digital Radiography machine in the Medical Centre at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, during a deployment in May 2008
[Picture: Corporal Ian Houlding RAF]
The Defence Medical Services (DMS) consists of the single Service medical directorates, the training agency, dental services and its headquarters the Defence Medical Services Department. It is headed by the Surgeon General and the Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Health).
The Surgeon General, Lieutenant General Louis Lillywhite MBE QHS, was amongst those honoured, being appointed a Companion in the Military Division of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (CB).
Surgeon Commodore Timothy Douglas-Riley QHP, Assistant Chief of Staff Medical for the Royal Navy, and Colonel Timothy Hodgetts QHP, Defence Professor of Emergency Medicine, College of Emergency Medicine, have both been appointed as Commanders in the Military Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE).
Captain Lynne Gibbon, Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service, has received an OBE, and Lance Corporal Angeline Matley, Royal Army Medical Corps, has received an MBE.
On being told of his honour, Lieutenant General Louis Lillywhite said:
"I am delighted to receive this award and I congratulate my professional colleagues whose superb work in the field of medicine has also been acknowledged today.
"Looking after our patients is very much a team effort, and I pay tribute to everyone who plays a role in the excellent standard of care we offer to our Armed Forces. Drawing from all three Services working closely with the NHS, supported by specialists in the wider welfare community, a pathway of care links the first responders and field hospitals in Afghanistan and Iraq to the military and civilian centres of excellence in the UK.
"We should all be proud of the dedication and skills that this combined team offers to our patients – they deserve nothing less."
There are over 7,000 regular DMS personnel working in 15 rehabilitation units across the UK and Germany, in Ministry of Defence Hospital Units based in the NHS, in 15 military-run Departments of Community Mental Health, as well as of course, in the field hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan.