Principal Medical Officer

Last updated

Principal Medical Officer is a senior position in the Royal Army Medical Corps, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Army Medical Corps (India), NHS Scotland and the Irish Health Service Executive. [1]

The title was formerly used within the British National Health Service and the health services of former colonies. James McGrigor was appointed Principal Medical Officer of the Portuguese Army during the Peninsular War. [2] A position of Principal Medical Officer in the Crimea was established from 1854 to 1856 for the duration of the Crimean War. [3] Florence Nightingale made suggestions as to the duties of the post. [4]

The position still existed in England [5] and Wales [6] until the 1974 reorganisation. The title is still used in NHS Scotland. [7]

The St John Ambulance in England formerly had a Principal Medical Officer position. [8]

In Australia the position was the senior administrator of the Medical Department of each state from 1895, when it was created as part of the Colonial Secretary's Department, replacing the position of Colonial Surgeon, to 1911. The superintendents of hospitals reported to the Principal Medical Officer. [9] The position still exists within the Civil Aviation Safety Authority. [10]

The term is still used in Namibia. [11]

Related Research Articles

Florence Nightingale English social reformer, statistician, and founder of modern nursing

Florence Nightingale was an English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War, in which she organised care for wounded soldiers at Constantinople. She gave nursing a favourable reputation and became an icon of Victorian culture, especially in the persona of "The Lady with the Lamp" making rounds of wounded soldiers at night.

Mary Seacole British-Jamaican businesswoman, nurse (1805–1881)

Mary Jane Seacole was a British-Jamaican nurse and businesswoman who set up the "British Hotel" behind the lines during the Crimean War. She described this as "a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers", and provided succour for wounded service men on the battlefield, and nursed many of them back to health. Coming from a tradition of Jamaican and West African "doctresses", Seacole displayed "compassion, skills and bravery while nursing soldiers during the Crimean War", through the use of herbal remedies. She was posthumously awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit in 1991. In 2004, she was voted the greatest black Briton.

Military nurse

Most professional militaries employ specialised military nurses. They are often organised as a distinct nursing corps. Florence Nightingale formed the first nucleus of a recognised Nursing Service for the British Army during the Crimean War in 1854. In the same theatre of the same war, Professor Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov and the Grand Duchess Yelena Pavlovna originated Russian traditions of recruiting and training military nurses – associated especially with besieged Sevastopol (1854–1855). Following the war Nightingale fought to institute the employment of women nurses in British military hospitals, and by 1860 she had succeeded in establishing an Army Training School for military nurses at the Royal Victoria Military Hospital in Netley, Hampshire, England.

Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery Academic faculty

The Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care is an academic faculty within King's College London. The faculty is the world's first nursing school to be continuously connected to a fully serving hospital and medical school. Established on 9 July 1860 by Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, it was a model for many similar training schools through the UK, Commonwealth and other countries for the latter half of the 19th century. It is primarily concerned with the education of people to become nurses and midwives. It also carries out nursing research, continuing professional development and postgraduate programmes. The Faculty forms part of the Waterloo campus on the South Bank of the River Thames and is now one of the largest faculties in the university.

Nursing in the United Kingdom has a long history. The current form of nursing is often considered as beginning with Florence Nightingale who pioneered "modern nursing". Nightingale initiated formal schools of nursing in the United Kingdom in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The role and perception of nursing has dramatically changed from that of "handmaiden" to the doctor to professionals in their own right. There are over 500,000 nurses in the United Kingdom and they work in a variety of settings, such as hospitals, health centres, nursing homes, hospices, communities, and academia, with most nurses working for the National Health Service (NHS). Nurses work across all demographics and requirements of the public: adults, children, mental health, and learning disability. Nurses work in a range of specialties from the broad areas of medicine, surgery, theatres, and investigative sciences such as imaging. Nurses also work in large areas of sub-specialities such as respiratory, diabetes, neurology, infectious diseases, liver, research, cardiac, and stoma. Nurses often work in multi-disciplinary teams but increasingly are found working independently.

The Birthday Honours 2006 for the Commonwealth realms were announced on 17 June 2006, to celebrate the Queen's Birthday of 2006.

Selimiye Barracks Turkish army barracks

Selimiye Barracks, also known as Scutari Barracks, is a Turkish Army barracks located in the Üsküdar district on the Asian part of Istanbul, Turkey. It was built first in 1800 by Sultan Selim III for the soldiers of the newly established Nizam-ı Cedid in frame of the Ottoman military reform efforts.

John Hall (British Army officer)

Sir John Hall KCB was a British military surgeon.

George Stewart Beatson was a Scottish physician who was surgeon-general of the British Army and Honorary Physician to the Queen.

Royal Herbert Hospital Hospital in England

Initially the Herbert Hospital, renamed in 1900, the Royal Herbert Hospital was built as a restorative facility for British veterans of the Crimean War, and remained a military hospital until 1977. It was situated in southeast London, on the south side of Woolwich Common, on the western slopes of Shooter's Hill, in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. Today the former hospital buildings form a residential development known as the Royal Herbert Pavilions.

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) is the local health board of NHS Wales for the north of Wales. It is the largest health organisation in Wales, providing a full range of primary, community, mental health, and acute hospital services for a population of around 694,000 people across the six principal areas of north Wales as well as some parts of Mid Wales, Cheshire and Shropshire. Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board is the operational name of Betsi Cadwaladr Local Health Board.

Betsi Cadwaladr

Betsi Cadwaladr, also known as Beti Cadwaladr and Betsi Davis, worked as a nurse in the Crimean War alongside Florence Nightingale, although their different social backgrounds were a source of constant disagreement. Her name today is synonymous with the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, the largest health organisation in Wales. In 2016, she was named as one of "the 50 greatest Welsh men and women of all time". and was placed ahead of such famous Welsh individuals as the singer Tom Jones, the actor Anthony Hopkins, T.E. Lawrence and Ivor Novello.

The history of nursing in the United Kingdom relates to the development of the profession since the 1850s. The history of nursing itself dates back to ancient history, when the sick were cared for in temples and places of worship. In the early Christian era, nursing in the United Kingdom was undertaken by certain women in the Christian Church, their services being extended to patients in their homes. These women had no real training by today's standards, but experience taught them valuable skills, especially in the use of herbs and folk drugs, and some gained fame as the physicians of their era. Remnants of the religious nature of nurses remains in Britain today, especially with the retention of the job title "Sister" for a senior female nurse.

2nd Medical Brigade (United Kingdom) Military unit

2nd Medical Brigade is a formation of the British Army formed under 1st UK Division. It predominantly provides deployed hospital care via 13 Field Hospitals. It also provides specialist medical capabilities via three Nationally Recruited Units; 306 Hospital Support Regiment, 335 Medical Evacuation Regiment and Medical Operational Support Group.

The 1926 Birthday Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of The King on 3 June, but it was announced on 20 May that due to the national strike, the King had approved the Prime Minister's recommendation to delay the publication of the list until 3 July 1926. The honours were effective to 5 June 1926. Per standard practice, Sir Paul Chater, who died 27 May 1926, still received the honour of Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire as he would have received the honour if he had survived.

Operation Rescript British military operation to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic

Operation Rescript is the code name for the British military operation to help tackle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom and its Crown Dependencies. It has been described as the UK's "biggest ever homeland military operation in peacetime" by the Ministry of Defence (MOD), involving up to 23,000 personnel within a specialist task force, named the COVID Support Force (CSF). The support is given at the request of the UK government, its devolved administrations and civil authorities through the Military aid to the civil authorities (MACA) mechanism.

Thomas Alexander was a military surgeon in the British Army who rose to the position of Director General of the Army Medical Department.

Statue of Mary Seacole Artwork at St Thomas Hospital, London

The statue of Mary Seacole stands in the grounds of St Thomas' Hospital, Lambeth, London. Sculpted by Martin Jennings, the statue was executed in 2016. It honours Mary Seacole, a British-Jamaican who established a "British Hotel" during the Crimean War and who was posthumously voted first in a poll of "100 Great Black Britons".

Eliza Roberts (British nurse) British nurse of the Crimean War

Eliza Roberts (1802–1878) was an English nurse who was among the first group of nurses to accompany Florence Nightingale to Scutari Hospital during the Crimean War. Nightingale regarded her as the best of her nurses and appointed her Head Nurse.

References

  1. ↑ "Medical Officers, Eligibility Criteria". HSE. 2018. Retrieved 2 June 2019.
  2. ↑ "Commemorative Plaques Record Details". City of Aberdeen. 2019. Retrieved 2 June 2019.
  3. ↑ "Principal Medical Officer in the Crimea". Wellcome Library. 21 May 2019. Retrieved 2 June 2019.
  4. ↑ Nightingale, Florence (1858). The Crimean War:Notes on the Health of the British Army. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. p. 665. ISBN   9780889204690 . Retrieved 2 June 2019.
  5. ↑ "Rodney Wilkins, formerly Principal Medical Officer, Department of Health and Social Security, Alexander Fleming House, Elephant and Castle, London SEI". Bulletin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. March 1988. Retrieved 2 June 2019.
  6. ↑ "Welsh Board of Health and Welsh Office: Principal Medical Officer: Unregistered Files". National Archives. Retrieved 2 June 2019.
  7. ↑ "The restricted patients team". Scottish Government. Retrieved 2 June 2019.
  8. ↑ "Obituary: A. C. WHITE KNOX, C.B.E., M.C., M.B., Ch.B". British Medical Journal. 25 November 1961. Retrieved 2 June 2019.
  9. ↑ "Principal Medical Officer (1895 - 1911)". Find and Connect. Retrieved 2 June 2019.
  10. ↑ "Vacancy Details". CASA. January 2019. Retrieved 2 June 2019.
  11. ↑ "Dr. Mfutila Tsitukenina, Principal Medical Officer in Namibia". Capacity Plus. 14 January 2014. Retrieved 2 June 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.