Professor Dave Thomas appointed as commanding officer new Army regiment

With Somerset home to the 40 Commando Royal Marines and RNAS Yeovilton, many of our colleagues and patients have strong links to the armed forces.

An estimated 55,000 armed forces personnel live in Somerset, which means about 10% of our patient population come from a military background.

One of our colleagues, who’s been part of the armed forces community for over 30 years is Professor Dave Thomas, our director of nursing strategy and transformation and chief nursing information officer.

Dave, who’s also a British Army Reservist, was selected to take up a prestigious role on Friday 1 December, when he took command of 243 Multi-role Medical Regiment – which is transitioning to become a brand new multi-role medical regiment.

A nurse for 34 years, Dave has a mixed background, from roles in the Army, to being the interim chief nurse at the former Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust for 18 months.

He first arrived at our trust to support the deputy chief nurse role for a while, before becoming our chief nursing information officer, as well as a portfolio role covering strategy and transformation, linked to our digital developments.

“I’m so proud and humbled to have been selected in this prestigious role for 243 MMR,” he said. “As an officer we serve to lead, and when we go through Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, we stick to that motto – all about serving our unit.

“Not everyone gets this opportunity, so I’m thrilled! I think being in this role will help to bring a different perspective to our own organisation (Somerset FT) as well, and I’ve had lots of support from colleagues, including our executive team.

“In my nursing background I specialise in trauma, but my experience hasn’t always been in the NHS, as in 2007-09 I took a few years out to work full time in the Army medical services.

“I’m already part of the 243 Wessex Field Hospital, but my new command role will oversee its transition into a new multi-role medical regiment, which comes into effect in January 2024.

“It’ll be a much larger regiment with an additional 100 personnel, of which we need to fill gaps over the next year – a huge recruitment drive!

“While the regiment is currently purely a field hospital, it will soon include paramedics, ambulances, combat medical technicians, drivers, and chefs, covering the whole patient experience, from wounding through to hospital care.

“We cover the entire south west, from Gloucestershire to Truro, across to Portsmouth and up to Swindon – a huge area of responsibility that has four squadrons within it.

“As a vital part of the British Army, we may go abroad for an overseas exercise, or we could be tasked to support any conflict zone, depending on what the requirement is.

“We go through stages of when we’re ready to be deployed, with a cycle of 3-4 years where we could either be the deployable unit, or the reserve unit behind that.

“The world is an unstable place at the moment, so the requirement for our services could be pretty soon, though hopefully not, of course!”