The Medical Reception Station: a new primary care capability for 3 Commando Brigade

3 Commando Brigade’s delivery of pre-hospital (Role 1) care has until now largely been based around junior doctors delivering trauma-based resuscitation and limited primary care from small self-contained Regimental Aid Posts (RAPs). With the drawdown of large scale operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the diversity of potential future military operations, the deficiency of General Practitioner(GP)-led care in the deployed setting has become more evident, and this has driven the requirement for a deployable primary care facility in the form of a Medical Reception Station (MRS). This paper describes the evolution of this project, the realities of deploying a new medical capability for the first time, some of the issues faced, and the potential utility of such a medical facility in future.