Inverness mercy trauma and orthopaedic surgeon Andy Kent is top global citizen at the Scottish Health Awards
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An Inverness surgeon has been given a top health award.
Andy Kent, who is a 58-year-old trauma and orthopaedic surgeon based at Raigmore Hospital, received the Global Citizen Award at the Scottish Health Awards.
Earlier this year, he travelled to Ukraine on a number of occasions to help treat those who were injured following the Russian invasion.
He said: “I am pleased for myself and for my work colleagues who have always supported me in my humanitarian missions – sometimes at very short notice.
“Especially pleased for my wife Jill and our four kids who have never questioned my desire to make these sacrifices, on all of us.
“I think my recent work in Ukraine, 10 weeks this year, was the main reason I was nominated – especially with the media coverage it received.”
As well as his work in Ukraine, he has also taken part in several other missions – with UK-Med in Beirut and Eswatini, the HALO Trust in Afghanistan, with WHO in Somalia and Yemen and the Primary Trauma Care Foundation in Uganda and India – which he also felt had led to his nomination.
He has also received other awards during his current career and his army service including a few military medals and an award from the King of Malaysia, through the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
Mr Kent is due to undertake a surgical fellowship in Borneo later this month which will involve three weeks assessing remote surgery in the jungles and islands off eastern Sabah.
Other Inverness medical staff have also worked in Ukraine including Professor Angus Watson, a surgeon, and Dr Hamish Hay, an anaesthetist, who were deployed with the UK-Med Field Surgical Unit to the east of Ukraine and Dr Claire Vincent, acute medical specialist, who led a UK-Med training team in Dnipro.
Mr Kent said: “I hope to return to Ukraine in early 2023 but this is still to be confirmed.”
He said there was a charity concert on November 16 at Eden Court for Ukraine, which will feature Duncan Chisholm and Julie Fowlis, adding: “I’ve been asked to give a brief introduction to Raigmore’s contribution.”
