Page 46 - RADC 2020

Never an ordinary day
Reflections from Chairside to delivering Land Deployed Hospital Care
Lt Col G Hattersley
As Chief of Staff of a headquarters that exists to manage nearly three thousand people and a budget of over four million pounds, it can truly be said that there
is never an ordinary day. 2nd Medical Brigade has a wide span of command, fifteen units across the United Kingdom, Field Hospitals, and specialist medical units, with a mix of Regular, Reserve and Civil Servants. The challenges faced by each unit and the individuals within them can sometimes be quite unique.
With three principle SO1s in the Bde HQ, each of us owns our respective functional areas, though as COS primus inter pares is recognised with direct responsibility to the Commander for the day to day management of the brigade. Whilst planning out to three years, as we all know a plan rarely survives contact. Time sensitive decisions may be needed on managing finances, delivering exercises, and deploying individuals and units on operations. Despite what can sometimes be fairly stressful and long days, it is enormously satisfying to see the results. Having served previously in the brigade in
an operations and commitments role, it was inspiring to see the pictures coming back from South Sudan when the UK deployed on its first United Nations operation for a considerable period of time. This included a Role 2E Field Hospital designed, validated,
and deployed from scratch, concept to reality in just a few months. Currently, the brigade is embarking on developing another bespoke capability, Ground Manoeuvre Surgical Groups to deploy in support of long-range reconnaissance patrols against insurgents as part of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali.
As we pursue our careers it is important to reflect on how we got there, though rarely do we ever take the opportunity to write
it down, let alone share it with others. In this respect writing this for the Bulletin has allowed me to look back on my early career as a General Duties Dental Officer and see just how much it enabled my current path.
Staff and Command wasn’t always something I had considered. Having spent the first seven years of my career in Germany I was grateful that I was able to experience working in everything from a large ten chair practice in Rheindahlen to running my own three chair practice
44 RADC BULLETIN 2020
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