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NAVY NEWS, MAY 2002
15
Farewell to Medical College at Blockhouse
T
HE ROYAL Defence Medical College has closed the doors of its Fort Blockhouse home for the last time. Established at the Gosport base in August 1996, the Royal Defence Medical College (RDMC) provided postgraduate training in military surgery, military medicine, army psychiatry, preventative medicine, military entomology and general practice for all three Services. After a review in 1998, the Ministry of Defence announced that a Centre for Defence Medicine would be created as part of a future strategy for the Defence Medical Services. This tri-Service centre is hosted by the University Hospital Birmingham NHS Trust and provides a centre of excellence that
will be the main focus for all military medical expertise. The future for the Fort Blockhouse site remains positive despite the departure of the RDMC. Twenty-two lodger units remain on the site including the Submarine Escape Training Tank, 33 Field Hospital and the Joint Services Adventurous Sail Training Centre. In addition, the Centre for Defence Medicine will run a training division to look after student nurses who remain at the University of Portsmouth. The longer-term future of the Gosport site remains under review. • Away from the specific Blockhouse changes, all four MOD Medical Agencies have just been through a five-yearly review. This has resulted in a decision to focus more specifically on the delivery of two key areas - medical care that can be deployed in operational scenarios, and appropriate healthcare for Service men and
As part of this review, it has been decided to restructure the existing agencies to concentrate on these two primary aims. The Defence Secondary Care Agency will disappear in March 2003, and its training functions will be transferred to an expanded Defence Medical Education and Training Agency. Healthcare commissioning from this point will be handled by a new group within the Surgeon General's staff. The Medical Supplies Agency has already become a part of the Defence Logistics Organisation on April 1, 2002. It is planned to keep the Defence Dental Agency in its present form, with a few minor changes. Arrangements for healthcare in Germany and Northern Ireland are not expected to be changed, but the provision of all aspects of medical services in Gibraltar and Cyprus will become the responsibility of the local Commands. The MOD aims to establish a
• The three Services form Ceremonial Divisions to mark the closure of the tri-Service Royal Defence Medical College at Fort Blockhouse before moving to the Centre for Defence Medicine, Birmingham stronger partnership between the defence medical and the National Health Service, and to draw on lessons learnt from within the NHS and parent Services to strengthen the existing medical role. This new assessment has given a chance for the MOD to take stock of progress for the medical services since the changes of 1998. The MOD says of the review: "It is no surprise that it has concluded that while much has been done over the last three years there are further steps to be taken - and changes to be made - that will help the process of restoring the Defence Medical Services capability and ensuring that key defence medical outputs are delivered. "The Government is committed to achieving those aims and, subject to the normal consultative process, to implementing the outcome of the review."
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• Air Chief Marshal Sir Anthony Bagnall, Vice Chief of the Defence Staff, inspects Ceremonial Divisions at Fort Blockhouse