> Medical Facilities in Afghanistan

Medical Facilities in Afghanistan

16 Sep 07

The Sunday Telegraph has published an article today, Sunday 16 September 2007, claiming that there are critical shortages of doctors for British troops in Afghanistan and that the 40-bed field hospital at Camp Bastion, the main British base in Helmand, closed its doors twice in the past six months because it ran out of beds.

British medics from 208 Field Hospital treat casualties from the suicide bomb attack in Gereshk earlier this month
[Picture: MOD]

Camp Bastion field hospital was never closed. Bed occupancy at the various field hospitals is controlled by Regional Command (South) across its Area of Operations and hospitals have overlapping arcs. British casualties are sent to the field hospital at Camp Bastion wherever possible but it is not unusual for UK troops to be treated in other facilities in the RC(S) area. We often treat other International Security Assistance Force, Afghan National Army troops, Afghan National Police or civilians in our facilities as well.

Threat levels around the AO fluctuate and as a result we constantly rebalance where our medical staff are based and move doctors around depending on the balance of risk or whether we are conducting an operation etc.

The Sunday Telegraph article reports that the shortage of doctors was revealed following the death last month of Captain David Hicks, second-in-command of C (Essex) Company 1 Royal Anglians, who they say had repeatedly requested that a doctor capable of conducting emergency minor surgery be sent to Patrol Base Inkerman in the Sangin valley.

For Inkerman, where the threat level went up over a short period of time, we assessed the risk and we immediately rebalanced our doctors, taking advantage of a doctor returning from R&R to base him there. He was swapped to Inkerman and arrived the day after Capt Hicks was killed. We have combat medical technicians at forward operating bases (FOB). They are trained to deliver specialist trauma care. A combat medical technician is based at Inkerman.

Doctors are the only people able to write prescriptions and administer primary care, which is important in locations where the threat of indirect fire (such as PB Inkerman) means that movement of helicopters is minimised and as such primary care and long term health planning is more safely delivered at the FOB or PB rather than back at the facility at Camp Bastion. They do not deliver trauma care that is any different to that administered by a Combat Medical Technician.