Surgeon Commander Dermot Gardiner Royal Navy

Dermot Gardiner is a Consultant Occupational and Aviation Medicine Physician. He is based at the Institute of Naval Medicine in Alverstoke, Hamsphire, near the naval base in Portsmouth and is currently serving as the Head of Aviation Medicine for the Royal Navy.

Dermot read medicine at Queens University of Belfast and joined the Royal Navy as a Medical Cadet after his 2^nd MB examinations. He completed his degree in Belfast, undertook house jobs at the Royal Hospital Haslar in Gosport and the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh before undertaking 3 varied and interesting years as a General Duties Medical Officer with the Fleet. During this time he was the Medical Officer onboard the ships, HMS St Albans in the Indian Ocean, the aviation training ship RFA Argus in the Mediterranean and Caribbean, RFA Wave Ruler supporting UN Security Council counter narcotics patrols in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as a short patrol on HM Submarine Tireless under the Polar ice cap.  Shore appointments included RNAS Culdrose on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall which included manning the “flying doctor” rota with the Search and Rescue helicopters of 771 Naval Air Squadron based there.

Following this he returned to postgraduate medical training in General Practice completing his GP Registrar training on secondment to the NHS in Glasgow. He was then appointed as the principal GP and Senior Medical Officer at Commando Logistics Regiment Royal Marines in Barnstaple, Devon.

Always interested in Occupational and Aviation Medicine, Dermot was selected for transfer to Occupational Medicine training. He undertook this across the Naval establishment including posts in HM Naval Base Clyde, HM Naval Base Devonport, the Institute of Naval Medicine and with the NHS at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth as well as completing his MSc in Occupational Health at the University of Birmingham.

On award of his CCT in 2017 he was selected to undertake the Postgraduate Diploma in Aerospace Medicine at Kings College London which he completed in April 2018. Following success at the Armed Services Consultant Appointment Board he was appointed as Consultant in the Defence Medical Services. Initially employed in Navy Command HQ as the policy lead for Occupational Medicine, he has been subsequently appointed as the Consultant in Aviation and Occupational Medicine to Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton, in Somerset, and then RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall.

Dermot was appointed as the Royal Navy Consultant Advisor in Aviation Medicine in 2019.

He also has a keen interest in medical ethics and law and has completed a Master in Medical Law at the University of Glasgow in 2010.