Soldiers put through paces to build and operate field hospital within five days
Video report by ITV News Meridian's Sally Simmonds
Soldiers at an army hospital built in a Hampshire village have been put through their paces in order to be ready to deploy anywhere in the world within five days.
The Army Medical Service's two two Field Hospital could be required to do anything from serving on an overseas operation, or providing humanitarian relief in the case of a natural disaster.
They have been undergoing tests to ensure they are up to the task, working through different scenarios using plastic dolls.
Every movement by every team will be videoed and assessed to make sure procedure is correct, quick and slick.
Lt Col Peter Hale RAMC, Commanding Officer said: "The process takes approximately three weeks, so they come and watch us deploy the field hospital, build it, integrate all of our healthcare staff and then they put us through our paces with lots of realistic patients coming through our hospital."
Lt Col Andrew Cox, Consultant Physician said: "I think we've learned a lot from lessons in Afghanistan in particular because of the high trauma, and we just improved gradually and became very good."
The field hospital built at Barton Stacey is the new standard with two emergency beds, one operating theatre, two intensive care beds and 12 ward beds.
It's ready to be deployed with 5 days notice.
The scrutiny to achieve validation is intense, because these army medics will be delivering care anywhere, to NHS standard, so that soldiers know they are in the best hands.