TWO Army reservists have started training for deployment to Afghanistan where they will help run a mobile field hospital.

Major Mark Judge, 47, from Forest Hill, currently works as a radiographer at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich.

In October he will help run a clinic in Helmand Province alongside his 29-year-old colleague, Lieutenant Danny Smith, from Hither Green, who works at the same hospital as a physiotherapist.

The pair will be joined by 254 other reservists on duty, including NHS doctors, nurses, consultants, paramedics and anaesthetists.

Chairman of the healthcare commission, Sir Ian Kennedy, who recently wrote a review of defence medical services, said: “There is absolutely no question that personnel injured in battle have a better chance of survival than ever before.

"That is entirely due to efficient and innovative care, delivered under exceptionally difficult circumstances.”

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