The Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Course (PHEC). A TA initiative.

The Pre-Hospital Emergency Care (PHEC) course is a 3 day course run by BASICS Education for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Royal College of Nursing and the NHS Ambulance Service. PHEC teaches and examines the care of medical, trauma, paediatric and obstetric patients in the pre-hospital environment. 243 (The Wessex) Field Hospital has held two of an intended ongoing programme of PHEC courses and they have proved suitable for medical and dental officers, nurses and combat medical technicians. We believe the courses to have a valuable role in the ongoing training of CMT is as well as medical and nursing officers. Furthermore, being nationally recognised qualifications we hope the courses will have a positive effect not only on personnel retainment but on recruitment. Demand for places has far exceeded availability and we believe will continue to do so as these courses are not only highly relevant to TA service but to civilian career progression. Furthermore, as the humanitarian role of the armed forces becomes more and more important the PHEC course will become increasingly relevant to regular army personnel not only during their service but also after leaving the forces. The ultimate beneficiaries will be our patients.