Medics face 'awe-inspiring' task

The field hospital deals with severely injured casualties virtually every day

A Kent GP has spoken of the tough demands facing medics working to save the lives of soldiers injured serving in Afghanistan.

Col Peter Gilbert, from Rochester, is in charge of the main field hospital at Camp Bastion in southern Helmand.

He said some injuries were worse than the NHS would ever see, including regular cases of lost limbs.

"We are seeing injuries here on an almost daily basis that nobody in the health service will ever see," he said.

Col Gilbert, 51, who is the commanding officer of the Territorial Army's 256 City of London Field Hospital, heads a squadron of about 170 men and women.

He said many of the injured had lost limbs after being caught by roadside bombs or improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Col Gilbert said casualties with extreme injuries were able to survive because of rapid treatment on the ground, fast transport to hospital and specialist treatment when they arrived.

UK medics treating Afghan injured

He said that while doctors normally spoke of the "golden hour" for treating patients immediately, in Helmand the phrase had been modified into "the platinum 10 minutes".

"It's in that 10 minutes that people who have had these awful destructive injuries will bleed to death," he said.

"So you start off by preventing the patient bleeding to death instantaneously."

He also said the work the medics did was incredibly varied, adding: "We will get some days where it's frantic, like last Monday when two helicopters crashed, and other days where almost nothing happens."

Col Gilbert, who is normally based at the Thorndike surgery in Rochester and has been in the Army for 33 years, said to watch the team of surgeons in action was "awe-inspiring".