Page 36 - The Gazette Autumn 2024
P. 36
36 The Gazette QARANC Association
THE QARANC AT 75
Reservists
and current
operations
Reservists have always played a significant role in army nursing. The Territorial Force was set up after the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act in 1907. The Territorial Force Nursing Service (TFNS) came into being in 1908. In 1921, the Territorial Force was changed to the Territorial Army and the TFNS followed suit, becoming the Territorial Army Nursing Service (TANS). The TANS was disbanded in 1950 after becoming the QARANC Reserve.
With the ‘peace dividend’ of the end of the Cold War, following the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, the remaining military hospitals closured, with the Cambridge Military Hospital being the last of them, in 1996. To be able to train and keep clinical and nursing skills current, the AMS partnered with the NHS to open units such as the Ministry of Defence Hospital Unit at Frimley Park Hospital (now Joint Hospital Group South East) which opened in the same year with its nearby links to the Aldershot Garrison as well as the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. It meant that military medical personnel, including those of the QARANC, now worked alongside their civilian colleagues in NHS hospitals.
In recent years the QARANC has relied significantly on the contributions of reservists, who serve as a crucial component of the Corps’ healthcare capabilities. These reservists are trained nurses with civilian expertise, who undergo specialized
The British Army nurse is highly trained and specialised
military training. Their role is to supplement full- time personnel and includes deployment to diverse environments such as field hospitals, military medical facilities, and participation in humanitarian missions enhancing the Corps’ overall capacity to address varied healthcare challenges.
The QARANC have had an impact on peacetime humanitarian relief efforts such as that seen during the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone in 2015. Civilian leadership oversaw the British military’s collaboration with non-governmental organizations (NGOs), aiming to complement the ongoing efforts of the Sierra Leonean government and its citizens.
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