My Working DayCol Joseph Monaghan, director of the Medical Corps, is responsible for the healthcare of more than 10,000 people
In terms of my actual working day, little content has changed, except that I now have full responsibility for the working of the office, setting the health policy of the corps and dealing with routine healthcare issues.
Much of the advice I get, in relation to specific healthcare issues, comes from outside specialists. For example, if we are sending troops on a mission, it is my job to identify the various medical factors - we call them medical threats. In the case of central Africa, malaria is the big issue and my function is to find the best and most appropriate treatment to use, from medicine to protection nets and so on.
I have served 30 years in the army up to this point.
When I trained as a GP, I would have moved from hospital to hospital getting the required experience. At a certain stage I felt army life would be an attractive career path. I always had a liking for military life, so I applied, was accepted and I'm here ever since.
The strange thing about military life is that it doesn't seem to change in essence over the years.
I'm reading a book at the moment on the American army between 1775-1820 and if you changed the amount of money and the names of drugs, the issues they faced could easily be applied to a modern unit.
One of the big challenges for me is to attract medical personnel to army life. It's a life that offers a huge amount in terms of adventure. I've always found it to be a very varied sort of practice, very different from the bits and bolts of general practice.
In the first instance, you're dealing with a predominantly male population aged 17-65. Within that you get all the same range of complaints you would get in civilian life, with an added emphasis on sport and training injuries. The actual interaction between doctor and patient is where it differs in the Defence Forces.
I remember being in the Lebanon about 10 years ago, and a soldier came into me with a simple eye problem which I looked after. It was well within the GP remit - I think I prescribed ointment. A week later I was doing a clinic in a local village, close to a demarcation line between the UN area and the area occupied by de facto forces. It was a volatile area and we required a protection unit. The chap I treated a week earlier was part of the unit assigned to protect me.
So a week earlier I was looking after him and here he was looking after me. That type of relationship is quite common in the army.
I have responsibility for the healthcare of more than 10,000 personnel. I normally try to finish sometime about 5pm, although if there are issues that need to be resolved it is often closer to six.
People ask me if I miss general practice, and I have to say yes and no. I am now in the position to support other doctors who are providing care, which is something I take huge satisfaction from.
In conversation with Brian O'Connell