TA medics prepare for Afghanistan

Although still to be confirmed, the unit is scheduled to deploy to Helmand province in the later part of the year to take control of the state-of-the-art British military hospital at Camp Bastion.

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

The men and women of 207 Field Hospital, which is one of two TA field hospitals based 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.

This included a recent 36-hour intensive test at the British Army's medical training centre at Strensall near York.

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

Among the soldiers from the unit training at Strensall was Major Sharon Stewart, aged 41. She is a mother-of-three who works as the acting general manager of Euxton Hall Hospital. She said:

"It is essential for soldiers to know that our facility is there should they ever need it. We provide assurance that when they go out on the ground, they know that should the worst happen, our hospital is there, close at hand, for them to be transferred to and get excellent care.

"We have all the departments you would expect to find in a normal hospital - an A&E department, theatre, pathology, X-ray, physio, intensive treatment and the wards.

"For me, this is about doing something worthwhile for your country. Not everyone has the opportunity to be called upon to do something for their country and to support our soldiers out on operations."

Lieutenant Colonel Nick Medway, 47, who works as a clinical services manager for North Lancashire Primary Care Trust said:

"The field hospital is a hospital facility which is very similar to what you would expect to find in the NHS, but it happens to be in the middle of Afghanistan.

"Casualties need to have treatment as near to the point of wounding as possible and that also needs to the best treatment possible."

On deploying on operations he said:

"It is about duty, a personal challenge, and the work that we are going to do is really, really important for the soldiers on the ground and for their families at home who can be reassured that this facility is out there."

Captain John Hewitt, 51, works as a biomedical scientist in the laboratories of Manchester Royal Infirmary. He said:

"Seventy per cent of diagnosis depends on laboratory results, so our role in the field hospital is important."

Colonel Robin Jackson, 55, is a GP. He has served in the TA since 1981 and has previously served tours of duty in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He is the Commanding Officer, the man in charge, of 207 Field Hospital:

"This is the first of three exercises between now and when we deploy in due course. The aim is to gradually increase the tempo and complexity of the training in order that when we deploy to Afghanistan we are fully trained and capable," he said.

"This exercise has lasted for a day-and-a-half, over a weekend, and all the cases are drawn from actual cases that have happened in Afghanistan, so there is as much realism as possible."

Lance Corporal Helen Archer, 39, a mother-of-three, works as an operating department practitioner at Macclesfield District General Hospital. She said:

"To have the opportunity to go out to Afghanistan is absolutely fantastic for me, to be able to put everything that I have been trained to do into practice - and more.

"My skills will increase ten-fold by going to Afghanistan, purely and simply because of the nature of injuries that we are going to be getting out there. We will hit the ground running and will have to think on our feet all the time.

"Everything I learn out there, I will bring back to my Trust.

"My kids think it is fantastic. My oldest daughter has told everyone who will listen that I am going to Afghanistan. They are very proud. My youngest daughter wants to join the Army when she leaves school and my son is just applying to join the Army!"

Captain Jill Rutherford, 33, works as an orthopaedic registrar at the Royal Liverpool Hospital, a surgeon specialising in trauma and orthopaedics. She said:

"Apart from bikers, we don't get a lot of trauma injuries in England anymore, particularly since seat-belt legislation. What I will see and learn in Afghanistan in six weeks I would not see in six years in the NHS, with respect to trauma and orthopaedics, so for my career this will be a phenomenal experience.

"I don't really see it as my job to comment on whether we should or should not be at war - I just think that if there are people out there with injuries and I have the skills to help, then it's my job to go."

207 Field Hospital (Volunteers) is one of 11 TA field hospitals in the British Army and one of two based in North West England. Its sister North West unit, 208 Field Hospital (Volunteers), which has its HQ in Liverpool, manned the field hospital at Camp Bastion for three months in 2007.

207 Field Hospital last deployed as a formed unit in 2004, to Iraq, but many of its soldiers have deployed since then as individual placements within other military medical units.