4 General Support Medical Regiment was formed on 1 April 2000 from 1 Regular and 2 TA Field Ambulance units. It consists of 5 Task Squadrons: 4 Area Medical Squadrons (2 Regular and 2 TA) an Evacuation Squadron and a Headquarter Squadron.
The Regular element of the Regiment is based in Aldershot with B (220) Medical Squadron (V) in Maidstone and C (222 EM) Medical Squadron (V) in Leicester.
The role of the regiment is to provide all Role 2 medical support to 101 Logistic Brigade and all other 3 (UK) Division Units in the Divisional Rear Area. We provide three functions:
- Area Medical Cover
- Pre-Hospital Emergency Care (via a Blue Light Matrix of first
battlefield ambulances)
- A ground based evacuation from Role 2 to Role 3 including inter-hospital
transfer.
A (11) Medical Squadron (A Sqn)
A Sqn was one of the two original squadrons that formed 4 Field Ambulance. The ’Field Ambulance’ concept arose from the Second World War, when large, mobile medical support was required to bridge the gap between the front line and the large Field Hospital complexes. Previously, evacuation had been the job of medical corpsmen attached to individual regiments, but as the scale of war grew, so the need for specialized Royal Army Medical Corps formations developed.
One of those original Field Ambulance formations was 11 Field Ambulance, which was itself eventually reduced to a squadron in 4 Field Ambulance, but in honour of the noble service done by 11 Field Ambulance, the new squadron kept its ’11’ designation.
