The last shift at Camp Bastion Hospital

The medics taking the ‘last shift’ at Britain’s military hospital in Afghanistan before its closure later this year have been passed fit for duty in York.

Around 350 personnel underwent their final training and assessment at an Army Medical Services base in Strensall, near York. There, for the last 11 years, it is a replica of Camp Bastion’s hospital. But the ‘class of 2014’ is the last before the mock-up is dismantled.

Between the partitions which represent the walls of operating theatres at the real Bastion Role 3 Hospital 3,500 miles away, surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses and support staff have been tested against the scenarios they might face in a few days time.

The hospital’s last team will be run by York-based 34 Field Hospital.