VIPER Course - The Instructors

Dr Malcolm Russell - Course Director

Actively practicing pre-hospital immediate care for over ten years, Dr Russell has served most of his career as a doctor in the British Army working extensively with some of the UK's most elite military units. He was central in the development of concepts of combat casualty care.  He held the prestigious post of Senior Lecturer in Pre-hospital Emergency Medicine at the UK Royal Centre for Defence Medicine.  As a civilian Dr Russell has worked with several ambulance services including the London Helicopter Emergency Medical Service and been involved in training paramedics and emergency care practitioners. 

Mr Andrew Purdie

Andy is an experienced state registered paramedic with particular expertise in Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Medicine where he helped develop new procedures for dealing with casualties in CBRN environments. He is recently retired from the British Army where he served for 21 years as a Combat Medical Technician with the Royal Army Medical Corps serving in a variety of operational theatres, as well as working with UK Special Forces. As a Prometheus instructor, Andy has provided medical training and support throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In the past year, Andy has worked as a medic in Pakistan, Europe and extensively throughout Africa.

Mr Andrew Hayles

Andy has worked as an NHS paramedic for the last seven years and he works part time on the Midland Air Ambulance.  He has travelled extensively throughout Europe, North America and South Africa.  Recently Andy travelled to Tanzania for some work experience, finding out how medicine is applied in a remote environment and the restrictions that are placed upon them by transport links, hospital facilities etc.  His experience has emphasised the importance of being self reliant, not to mention the requirement for a good evacuation plan if it all goes wrong.