34 Field Hospital, based in Dishforth, near York, has recently been validated as the Vanguard Field Hospital. The 52-bed tented field hospital with its staff will be on standby from November, ready to be deployed anywhere in the world.
Visitors from ten different countries recently visited the Field Hospital, to view medics training in a range of scenarios, using the high tech equipment specially ‘ruggedised’ to deal with the challenging environments the hospital will see in the future.
One of the exercises was to test the building of the tented hospital, stored in 78 containers and comprising 100 tents, which can be undertaken in just 16 hours
OC of the clinical squadron, Major Caroline Vincent, said they had practised for a year building up to the validation.
“We originally built a smaller hospital with fewer beds and we completed that ready to receive our first patient within 16 hours. Later we extended it to the current larger construction which has 48 ward beds, taking approximately another eight hours to build onto the original configuration.
“We have been joined this week by 204 (North Irish) Field Hospital and 243 (Wessex) Field Hospital – both Reserve field hospitals. 34 Field Hospital’s role is to train them in the light of what we learnt last week as part of our validation exercise. Next year these two Reserve units will conduct their own validations to go on standby.”
Watch the Hospital take shape:
The Field Hospital accommodates critical care of four Emergency Beds, two Operating Tables, and four ITU beds, meaning resuscitation, surgical interventions and critically ill patients can be cared for, as well as a further 48 General Ward beds to aid convalescing troops.
State-of-the-art equipment will be available to medics, including a CT-scanner and the unit will be able to hold 160 pints of blood and other blood products in strictly controlled conditions to allow their safe use.
The validation exercises saw 34 Field Hospital joined by medical colleagues from the US Army based in Germany, helping to improve allied cooperation and understanding once in the field.
With some 500 people linked to the hospital, including engineers, signallers, storemen, pharmacists, mechanics and chefs, facilities include mobile shower and toilet units, welfare areas, and even a new ‘gym in a box’ which can be deployed overseas – two ISO containers with all the modern fitness equipment and weights expected to be found in normal gymnasium.
Image: Crown Copyright 2016. Photo credit-Sgt Jamie Peters RLC (Phot)
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