North medic’s mercy mission to Ukraine to help those injured during the Russian invasion – Andy Kent is a consultant trauma and orthopaedic surgeon normally based at Raigmore Hospital
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As millions of Ukrainians flee their homes one brave medic has headed in the opposite direction.
Andy Kent, a consultant trauma and orthopaedic surgeon normally based at Raigmore Hospital, is currently surgical lead with charity UK-Med in the wartorn country.
The charity responds to disasters and humanitarian crises around the world, its work having previously taken Mr Kent to Beirut, after the devastating 2020 port explosion, and Eswatini in southern Africa during the Covid-19 crisis last year.
He told the Courier: “Three weeks ago I was working in Yemen with the World Health Organisation (WHO), advising on trauma pathways in and around the war-torn city of Aidan, when I received a phone call from UK-Med.
“They asked if I would be available to head to Ukraine immediately to help plan a humanitarian response to the unfolding horrors in the east of the country.
“After a couple of phone calls – to my wife and my orthopaedic service manager, El Harris (in that order) – I was able to confirm my availability.”
Flying in to Krakow in Poland, from there he travelled by road to Lviv in western Ukraine as part of a team of four charged with assessing the situation on the ground.
He said: “We were initially housed in the top floor of a Don Boscoe orphanage on the outskirts of Lviv which had already expanded to accommodate 150 ‘internally-displaced people’ (IDPs) – they only become refugees once they’ve crossed the border.
“Grateful as we were, we could not stay there and relocated to a private flat where I sleep on the sofa. There are literally dozens of aid agencies pouring into western Ukraine from all over the world and the coordination and control of these is a real challenge.”
Of the atmosphere in the city, he said: “Air-raid sirens regularly go off, especially at night, although no one pays them much attention.
“Recently bombing of local military bases has taken place and this has clearly increased tension.
“A significant percentage of the population, mainly the elderly, women and children, have left the city and crossed the border to Poland and beyond.
“They have been replaced by other IDPs heading from east to west and by an influx of humanitarian workers. There is therefore a disproportionate number of males who, under martial law, are unable to leave and expected to stay and protect their homeland.
“Almost every person I have spoken with has passionately stated that they will stay and fight the Russian invaders ‘at all costs’.”
Mr Kent previously served with the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) and one of the main aims of the current recce is to balance risks and benefits of deploying volunteer medical teams.
He said: “As a trauma surgeon I know that the best way to save life and limb is to shorten the ‘golden hour’ between point of injury and surgical treatment.
“This entails either rapid evacuation of the casualty by road or air ambulance – neither of which are available in Ukraine – or moving the surgical team as far forward as possible.
“The risks of placing NHS civilian staff in this situation are simply too great. We have travelled as far east as Vinnytsia, more than seven hours to the east, but still a long way from the front lines, but even there, there are significant risks to consider.”
He said he expected UK-Med, and most other humanitarian teams, to concentrate resources in central and western Ukraine, providing primary health care to hundreds of thousands of IDPs.
He said: “We are in the vanguard of this response and are hoping to commence running both static and mobile health clinics in the city of Drohobych, south of Lviv, where we have partnered with the local Karitas charity.”
• For more information and to make a contribution visit UK-Med's website.
