The latest armed forces nursing and surgeon graduates have taken part in a passing-out parade at RAF Cosford.

Twenty six nurses and 10 operating department practitioners took part in the Defence School of Health Care Studies’ (DSHCS) graduation parade at the Defence College of Aeronautical Engineering.

The parade in front of Reviewing Officer Major-General Martin Rutledge marks the end of two to three years’ training in Birmingham, and the trainees, who come from all three armed forces, will now be posted to Defence Medical Services units throughout the country.

This will include five Ministry of Defence hospital units in England.

In about two years’ time, they will be posted to frontline medical units in Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world. Colonel Phil Harrison, Training Commandant of the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, said: “This parade marks the culmination of arguably the most technically demanding training which junior non-commissioned officers can undertake in defence.

“Their academic results are among the very best of all health care undergraduates in the country, and they are a credit to the Defence Medical Services and the patients they serve.”