Mr Andrew Kent, a trauma and orthopaedic surgeon at Raigmore Hospital, has been made an OBE for his services to UK health support overseas and during the pandemic.
He is part of those selected for the King’s first ever New Year’s Honours list, appearing alongside stars like Queen guitarist Brian May and captain of the Euro 2022-winning England football team, Leah Williamson.
The OBE was endorsed by UK Med and the Royal College Surgeons of Edinburgh.
Andy Kent has devoted years of his life to humanitarian healthcare, ensuring patients who are vulnerable and in danger receive the treatment they deserve and providing trauma training to surgeons in low and middle income countries.
He commissioned into the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) while studying at medical school in Edinburgh, serving for 18 years in many different locations as a surgical trainee and consultant in various hostile and austere deployments. Since retiring from the RAMC in 2002, he has been working in trauma and orthopaedics at Raigmore Hospital.
Andy travelled to Ukraine with UK-Med at the height of the Russian invasion last year to help hospital staff prepare for casualties in the war zone, spending 10 weeks in total over two trips. In the last 3 years he has been involved in several other missions across the globe with UK-Med in Beirut and Eswatini, the HALO Trust in Afghanistan, the World Health Organisation in Somalia and Yemen, and the Primary Trauma Care Foundation in Uganda and India.
During the Covid-19 pandemic he helped countries get the supplies they needed by directing the UK Government through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on the aid it should send. He is also vice-chair of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh’s Faculty of Remote, Rural & Humanitarian Healthcare in partnership with UK-Med and others. Their aim is to provide an academic home for humanitarian healthcare workers from across the spectrum.
Andy said: “I could not have done any of what I have done without the support of my wife, Jill, who has been my rock over the last 30 years. I’d like to give a big shout-out to all my Orthopaedic colleagues at NHS Highland, as without their support it would be impossible to take up these postings in Ukraine and other places, and also to Anna Masson, our Branch Administrator in Inverness.”
He added: “I have tried to give humanitarian aid a place in the Royal College of Surgeons and I am encouraged by the large number of junior doctors who are taking up the opportunity with UK Med and others.”
Alan Grant, Clinical Director for Surgery, Anaesthesia and Critical Care at Raigmore Hospital, said: “We are all so proud of the work Andy undertakes and there is no one more deserving of this honour than him. He has selflessly demonstrated his devotion to his profession and we congratulate him on this very special recognition. I’d also like to thank the wider Orthopaedic team for their collaboration and hard work in making sure that Andy’s deployments are possible without any impact on the care of our patients.”
In November last year, he was awarded the Global Citizenship Award at the Scottish Health Awards. This year he plans to head back to Ukraine to continue providing humanitarian aid, starting with a trip in January.