Can war create a health dividend? A sliver of a silver lining?

Doctor Peter Gilbert, a retired local GP and a former senior officer in the Army Reserve, gave a fascinating talk to the Academic Scholars in the latest Zetountes Lecture. Drawing on his experiences in both arenas and his service in managing the British Army’s Medical Unit in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, Dr Gilbert’s presentation highlighted how the miseries of war can inspire progress in medical understanding and practice which benefits civilians and the NHS. Thus the Combat Applied Tourniquet, pioneered in Afghanistan, is now a standard piece of kit in UK ambulances.

Dr Gilbert, who is now a Deputy Lieutenant for Kent, showed how the trenches of World War One and injuries to fighter pilots in World War Two prompted significant advances in orthopaedic surgery, insights into emerging concepts of psychological trauma, accelerated antibiotic care and facial reconstruction.

This set the landscape for further learning in the conflicts first in Iraq and then in Helmand Province where the standard mortality rate fell below 1.0. War is where politics has failed, but it is a cauldron where extraordinary medical progress was forged.

The Scholars greatly enjoyed these insights and one of our Sixth Form Scholars, who is appropriately applying to read medicine, offered a fulsome vote of thanks in appreciation of Dr Gilbert’s talk.