Attendances at a field hospital emergency department during operations in Iraq November 2003 to March 2004 (Operation Telic III).

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the types of presentations; time lines and disposal of patients from the international, local and military community in Southern Iraq. METHODS: All presentations to the Emergency Department (ED) were clinically and demographically coded and entered onto an electronic database. RESULTS: During the period studied the emergency department dealt with 1455 new presentations of which 75% were UK Armed Forces personnel. CONCLUSIONS: This represented a busy period in the field hospitals time in Iraq and offered valuable training to emergency medicine trainees in an unusual environment.