AMERICAN army doctors arrived in Liverpool to take part in a transatlantic training exercise before Merseyside medics deploy to Afghanistan.

Liverpool Territorial Army medics the 208 Field Hospital played host to their US counterparts the 67th Forward Surgical Team (Airborne) who will join them in training for their forthcoming tour of duty. The 208 Field Hospital, who last year were granted the freedom of Liverpool, will be based in Camp Bastion when they return to the war zone in September.

The two units forged links in a joint training exercise in Miesau, Germany, last year and now the Merseyside medics are hoping to learn more from the Americans as they prepare to work with them in the field.

For Specialist Rachel Schrecengost, a nurse from Oregon, it will be her first tour of Afghanistan.

She explained: “I work in intensive care. There’s a lot to learn, because a lot of the trauma-based stuff I’ve not dealt with, like when they come in after they are first hit – I’ve not worked on that before, so to do this is a great learning experience.”

Specialist Schrecengost and her colleagues will train with the Merseyside TA medics at a warehouse in York which has been created as a carbon copy of Camp Bastion.

Using prosthetics, the teams will simulate the treatment of emergency admissions, amputations and life-support techniques.