Every month or so, can't remember exactly, there would be a new class of nurses arrive for training. This was quite an event for most of the male staff at the hospital - probably a slightly scary one for the new nurses!.....
We have now settled into the routine. There are constant exercises - obviously, very necessary. An effective crew is one that has been well drilled. The aim is to practice for all eventualities - attack, fires, damage control, men overboard, aircraft ditches etc. As you can see, an awful lot can occur on board a Royal Navy ship.....
Defence Committee launches web forum on Armed Forces medical care
Service personnel, their families and healthcare professionals are invited to take part in a web-based forum with Members of the House of Commons Defence Committee at the start of its inquiry into Medical Care for the Armed Forces....
We've just taken up position with the task force in the Total Exclusion Zone (TEZ) in the South Atlantic.
There she is - HMS Hermes, the task force's flagship. Sort of gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling knowing she's close and that you are now part of the ring of ship's around her.......
HMS Antelope took part in the Falklands War. On May 23, 1982, while Antelope was on air defence duty at the entrance to San Carlos Water, protecting a beachhead established two days earlier, she came under attack by ArgentineA-4 Skyhawk jets. Not long after the ship exploded while bomb disposal worked onboard.
This was a particularly sobering experience for me. Let me explain...
Is it a member of the public who takes on a bank robber, a man who saves a child from a burning house or a soldeir who storms a machine gun nest? Who knows - I'm sure we all have our views.....
Whilst working on the wards in Plymouth in 1975 I became very adept at "laying out" the deceased. No idea why - just didn't seem to bother me that much. I was often called upon to help on other wards when I was on night duty.......
A Royal Navy medic from Huddersfield has been doing her bit to help improve the lives of children in western Africa.
Medical Assistant Michelle Taylor, currently attached to the Royal Naval Hospital, Gibraltar, has just returned from Exercise Gambian Roller, a short-term training team detachment in the Gambia.
Being brought up on an island meant that I had led a rather quiet, sheltered life prior to joining up. One great revelation - and a source of fear and fascination in equal measure - was the Haslar Club pay day disco and the resident platter spinner.....
As we all know. Haslar and Stonehouse are no longer Naval hospitals. They were centres that offered the highest levels of care and cleanliness to it's service and civilian patients a like....
I live in the north east now, have done for many years. I love it up here for lots of reasons, but when those winds come off of the North Sea in winter straight from Siberia I'm sometimes in danger of falling out of love with the place again, if just for a second.
To warm me up psychologically I often drift back to my time on The Rock in the mid-eighties.....
Stevie B: "...and now one for all you lovers out there". One for Stevie B, the Barry Dyer of the Geneva Club, for whom this was a favourite at his discos way back when. Great music, pity about the cheesy "acting the words" thing on the video!
A Baby Friendly Award has been presented to midwifes at The Royal Naval Hospital (RNH), Gibraltar, making it the first military hospital to win international recognition from UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund).
