204 (NI) FIELD HOSPITAL PREPARE FOR A BUSY SPRING

Reservists from 204 (NI) Field Hospital have been training hard over the past few months in preparation for a busy period of exercises.

EXERCISE DEFI STARLIGHT CHALLENGE 2016

DEFI STARLIGHT CHALLENGE is a two day medical competition run by the 4 Health Services group of the Canadian National Defence Force. This Army Medical Services tactical Training Exercise (AMSTTE) will take place in May 2016, and has been opened for the first time this year to international teams. It will be conducted at Canadian Forces base Valcartier, Quebec.

The competition focusses on military skills, physical fitness and leadership as well as having a medical component geared to those in the Health Services field.

204 (NI) Field Hospital, under the leadership of Major Gillian McConnell , is in training and well up for the challenge, having been placed best Reserve team in the UK equivalent competition last year. The rules are similar – teams must be mixed in rank and gender, be fit and know their stuff – both medical and military!

Not for the faint hearted, there will be approximately 30 kilometres of movement over roads and through woodlands with requirements for the team to deal with individual and detachment level ‘events’ based on Battle Tasks and Health Service Support Tasks. Due to this challenging combination, completion of the exercise is deemed an accomplishment in itself! Canadian Units are required to participate in the exercise as a means of assessing their operational readiness by testing knowledge, military skills, medical competencies and physical fitness.

Ex SHAMAL STORM 16

Ex SHAMAL STORM 16 is an exercise that will be conducted in Jordan during March/April 2016 in order to validate the Vanguard Enabling Group in the opening of a theatre of operations.

Part of the theatre of operations will be a Vanguard Field Hospital (VFH), which 2 Med Bde has been tasked to provide. 34 Field Hospital have been tasked to fulfil this requirement by incorporating their own validation exercise, Ex JORVIK LOOK, within the main exercise. This will test the air deliverability, operation in an austere environment and environmental control capability of the 2/1/2/12 VFH.

Five members of 204 (NI) Field Hospital – three Drivers, one Nursing Officer and one Combat medical Technician are deploying to Jordan for 3 weeks to support this exercise.  

This is a fantastic opportunity to validate provision of Medical Support outside of the previously well-equipped and fairly permanent base in Afghanistan. 204 (NI) Fd Hosp is grateful to be in a position to support the exercise and learn from anticipated experiences and not yet identified best practice. In addition to this it is hoped that there will be an opportunity to develop bonds of friendship and conduct interoperability training with the Jordanian Armed Forces (JAF) Med.