Duchess of Cornwall to reward Navy’s ‘amazing’ Afghan medics

The Duchess of Cornwall will recognise the contribution made by naval medics in the sands of Afghanistan when she visits Portsmouth later this month.

As Commodore in Chief of Royal Naval Medical Services, she’ll present surgeons and medics with campaign medals for their selfless actions during Operation Herrick 14.

Three in every four personnel serving with the 257-strong Close Support Medical Regiment on Operation Herrick 14, which ended last autumn, were drawn from the Naval Service – while the overall British effort was led by 3 Commando Brigade.

The regiment provided combat medics who accompanied troops on some 10,000 foot patrols, while back at base in the main hospital at Camp Bastion, the hub of the British mission in Helmand, they dealt with 3,600 patients during the six-month deployment. Medics were also deployed to important outlying bases such as Kabul and Kandahar.

The combat medics were scattered around numerous forward operating bases, serving alongside soldiers and Royal Marines, joining them on patrols and frequently being called on to administer first aid.

They had to carry a full medical supplies rucksack, typically weighing more than 25kg (55lb), and were as much in the firing line as the troops they were there to help.

“It was a big shock to be taken out of the Navy world and be dropped into an Army world. It was a very steep learning curve,” said MA Craig Barff, who was attached to A Company, 3 Mercian Regiment.

LMA Lianne Spiby, who served with Lima Company, 42 Commando, added:

“I never expected to be sent to Afghanistan being in the Navy. It was a huge change from what I did before.

“The most difficult thing I have had to deal with is treating an Afghan child who had been hit by a car. Most think that we are just here to treat the ground troops but we give a lot of treatment to the locals too.”

Once the combat medics had administered first aid to the wounded on the ground, the Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT) flew in by Chinook to take the casualty back to the hospital at Bastion. The helicopter would normally be on the scene inside 30 minutes.

The team in the hospital received the same amount of warning as the MERT to prepare themselves. Also waiting on the ground for the Chinook’s return would be an ambulance – a Royal Marines musician in the driver’s seat, Naval nurses in the back.

Among the latter providing vital support on the short ambulance journeys was LNN Sarah Morris.

“There is such satisfaction in my job and we see all manner of injuries come through. The five minutes it takes to get from the helicopter to the hospital is a crucial time where it can be make or break for the casualty,” she explained.

Surg Cdr Jason Smith, consultant surgeon in the emergency department said despite receiving the heads-up about incoming casualties, “you really don’t know how you are going to react until you are faced with the patient.”

The main priority of the emergency team was to diagnose and stabilise a casualty so the waiting and observing surgeons could take them into theatre and begin to repair the sometimes-traumatic damage.

Once out of theatre, the more seriously injured spent the next 24 hours in the Intensive Care Unit.

“We really do have the best trauma care in the world,” said intensive care nurse CPO Nicola Leftly. “I honestly think that some of the injuries we saw here, the patients probably wouldn’t make it in other parts of the world.”

At times as many as half the patients passing through the Bastion hospital were Afghans who received the same level of care as Allied troops.

In addition to the Royal Navy and other British personnel working in the hospital, they were tended to by medics from the USA, Denmark and Estonia.

“What the Royal Navy have done out here is amazing,” said Surg Lt Jono Ritson, summing up the actions of his colleagues on Herrick 14.

“It is incredible that so many sailors can be taken out of their comfort zones and work to the highest of standards to make sure that the level of medical care given to the unlucky ones really is the best in the world.”

All of which the Duchess will learn when she visits HMS Excellent on January 27. As well as presenting medals she’ll join personnel and families at a subsequent reception on Whale Island.