Teams from across BSW take part in military cross-NHS training exercise
Teams from across BSW including the Salisbury Hospital, the Royal United Hospital, Great Western Hopsital and BSW ICB and were put through their paces on Dartmoor recently as participants in an annual inter-NHS challenge event known as Operation Medical Endeavour.
The exercise is organised annually by the 243 Field Hospital and the Wessex Reserves and is designed to help clinical and non-clinical staff from NHS organisations develop teamwork, strategies for working across boundaries and improve collaboration between the NHS and the Ministry of Defence.
Participants took part in several challenges based on teamwork, responsiveness, determination and leadership. The tasks included pulling a Land Rover out of a river, extracting casualties under fire, planning a humanitarian rescue, crossing a ‘ravine’ with a stretcher and navigating a tough assault course which included monkey bars, a six-foot wall, balance at height and tunnels.
Other exercises teams took part in included -building a radio transmitter with simulated blinded and injured team members, a tactical shooting range, a blind-folded minefield rescue and the grand finale team stretcher run and body drag.
Congratulations to the team from Salisbury, which consisted of colleagues from across the hospital, of all ages and multiple professions, who secured a well-earned bronze medal.
Dave Roberts, Director of Communications Engagement and Community Relations at SFT who participated in the event said:
“This was an awesome weekend spent with great people, pushing ourselves to solve problems and work together, it wasn’t a time for individual prowess it was a time for developing as a team – and in our case learning to love some basic drill.
We came together on Friday as strangers and left on Sunday as a team of equals and while the pain from the stretcher run was temporary the pride we all feel is permanent.”
For more information on 243 Field Hospital visit www.army.mod.uk/who-we-are/corps-regiments-and-units/army-medical-services/243-field-hospital/