New Year Honours: Inverness surgeon who rushed to help in Ukraine made OBE

By Louise Glen

December 30 2022, 10:30 pm

Scottish surgeon Andy Kent at Beirut Port. Photo: FDCO.

An Inverness surgeon who went to Ukraine at the height of the invasion has been honoured.

Andy Kent, a consultant at Raigmore Hospital, has been made an OBE for services to UK health support overseas, particularly in Ukraine, and during the pandemic.

Mr Kent, a former army medic who has been a doctor and surgeon for 40 years, went to Ukraine from another mercy mission in Yemen, in March.

Working during the pandemic

As the war was taking hold, Mr Kent was helping hospital staff prepare as far as they could for dealing for multiple casualties, in the war zone.

Inverness doctor Andy Kent (third left) with colleagues at the Lviv hospital in Ukraine. Image: Andy Kent.

Mr Kent is a member of UK Med, who often works in partnership with the UK Government Foreign and Commonwealth Department to get support and help to where it is needed most.

During Covid, he helped countries get the supplies they needed by undertaking reece missions and directing the UK Government thought the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on the aid it should send.

Mr Kent said: “What a surprise this was. I think it came from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for my last three years of service, including that in Eswatini, following an explosion in Beirut, Yemen and in Ukraine.

“I could not have done any of what I have done without the support of my wife Jill, my family and of course my colleagues at NHS Highland.

“I have spent 10 weeks in total in two phases in Ukraine, and I am heading back out on January 12 for a further six weeks.”

Encouraging others to give humanitarian aid

The modest family family revealed he does not feel he deserves the honour, as there others who do “so much more” than him.

However, he said he was personally pleased that the nomination had been backed by the Royal College of Surgeons as he is working hard to promote humanitarian aid among members of the body.

He said: “I understand that the OBE was endorsed by UK Med and the Royal College Surgeons (RCS) of Edinburgh, and that has meant much to me.

“I have tried to give humanitarian aid a place in the RCS and I am encouraged by the large number of junior doctors who are taking up the opportunity with UK Med and others.”