Raigmore Hospital consultant trauma and orthopaedic surgeon Andy Kent who is currently in Ukraine helping with the refugee crisis has had a varied career including serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) when he was posted to Fort George in Inverness
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Andy Kent was born in Malaysia in 1964 where his father was serving with the Army.
He grew up in Fife and Edinburgh which was where he went to medical school.
Mr Kent joined the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) to “see the world” and was posted to Fort George in Inverness.
He served for two years as regimental medical officer to the Gordon Highlanders in South Georgia (Antarctica), Kenya and West Belfast.
Subsequently he trained as an orthopaedic surgeon in the RAMC while serving around the world in various conflicts and austere environments.
He met his future wife, Jill Mullen, while serving in Belize and retired as a Lt Col after his second Gulf War.
Mr Kent was appointed as a consultant trauma and orthopaedic surgeon at Raigmore Hospital in 2002.
When I joined the team in Inverness he wanted to give something back and uses his leave and sabbaticals to work abroad for various medical organisations and charities.
He is a surgical Lead for UK-Med, a charity that responds to sudden onset disasters and humanitarian crises around the world, and was in the immediate aftermath of the Beirut Port explosion and led an emergency medical team to Eswatini during the Covid crisis last year.
With the Primary Trauma Care Foundation (PTCF) he teaches basic life and limb saving skills in austere environments – especially in Africa and India.
He has worked with the HALO Trust, a Scottish-based mine clearance charity, mainly in Afghanistan.
Mr Kent is also a trauma expert with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and has recently worked in Mogadishu, Aden and Yemen assessing trauma pathways.
In 2017, he spent two months delivering emergency trauma care to civilian casualties during the battle for Mosul – he said that, to date, this has been the most harrowing of all his experiences.
He was appointed as vice-chairman of the Faculty of Remote, Rural and Humanitarian Healthcare (FRRHH) at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd). This role allows him to bring together many of the charities that he work with under one virtual roof .
He is also the chairman of the Inverness-Shire and Western Isles branch of SSAFA, the Armed Forces Charity, and is the club doctor at Highland Rugby Football Club where he occasionally enjoys relaxing on a Saturday afternoon.
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