Gp Capt Dermont says:

I was delighted and deeply honoured to have been informed that the Society would be presenting me with this award. It is an immense privilege to be able to provide public health support to MoD colleagues as part of Operations LAZURITE and INTERFLEX. These important Operations represent collective efforts by Defence and the Defence Medical Services (DMS) in contributing to the wider UK Afghan Resettlement Programme and to training of Armed Forces Ukraine personnel respectively.

As a Defence Public Health Consultant I am Head of the Defence Public Health Unit based at the Headquarters of the DMS in Staffordshire. My team provides public health advice to the Director General DMS, Surgeon General and wider Defence and we are the single point of contact for all UK military infectious disease notifications from the global firm base and from overseas deployments. As military public health specialists we work closely as part of a multi-disciplinary ‘One Health’ DMS network, managing incidents and outbreaks to protect Personnel and maintain critical Defence outputs.