The King Edward VII Memorial Hospital is a 28-bed hospital in Port Stanley, Falkland Islands. It caters to the 2000 civillian and 2000 military residents of the Falklands, and the fishermen of the surrounding isles. All routine and emergency medical services are run from the hospital, and include a helicopter Search & Rescue Service, daily general practice clinics, flying doctor service for rural settlements, an A&E, ITU, and elective as well as emergency surgery.
The doctors that are central to the healthcare system are the kind I can only dream of being, thanks to the Modernising Medical Careers crap which is responsible for the mass confusion surrounding junior medical jobs in the UK. Here, the four GPs, one surgeon, and anaesthetist are together nothing short of a super-hero team. They see, treat, admit, and manage patients with the skill and ability of an entire hospital kitted out with superspecialists of every variety.
I'm particularly awestruck by the surgeon. One man - Pakistani too :-) - and he performs any surgical procedure required - orthopaedic surgery, caesarean sections, reconstruction of a hand following trauma, herniae, appendices, whatever. The limiting factor is not his skill, but the aftercare which is possible in such a setting, and the technology available. And as it's just the one surgeon, I'm the lucky duck that gets to assist on all the procedures. Not that it's brain surgery we're performing, but even an inguinal hernia is more exciting than an organ transplant when you're the one closing rather than the one watching on a remote screen.
