Framlingham twin brothers, one soldier, one surgeon, join forces at NHS Nightingale Hospital

Twin brothers have joined forces for the first times in their careers to help save lives at the new NHS Nightingale Hospital in London.

Lieutenant Colonel Phillip Moxey, of 1st Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment, led a team which helped turn the Excel Centre, in the Royal Victoria Docks, into a 4,000-bed hospital.

His brother, Paul, who is a vascular surgeon as St George’s Hospital in the capital, is on call to aid the hospital’s dedicated medical team.

Lt Col Moxey, 42, who attended Framlingham College with his brother, said: “Our soldiers have thrown themselves in to this effort with passion and energy to make sure our team-mates across government and, most importantly, the NHS get what they need.

“We have had their backs from the start and we will stay in it with them together until the end.”

At its peak, there were around 160 soldiers from five different Army units on the site of the convention and exhibition centre.

Now the build of the hospital is completed, the battalion will work alongside their NHS colleagues to make sure they continue to get the support they need.

Father-of-three Paul, who is married to a nurse, said: “I think the Nightingale is a triumph for NHS England and the Army team that have put it together so quickly.

“It shows what we can do as a country when we put our minds to it and has taught the NHS a lot about breaking out of the silos we all work in and collaborating with other teams to achieve a common goal. Long may it continue after Covid-19 is defeated.”

Having embarked on different career choices, this is the first time that the brothers have been able to combine their individual skills – honed over two decades in different fields – in one mission.

While Phillip went into the Army, brother Paul was inspired to become a surgeon after witnessing Sir Terence English, who performed Britain’s first successful heart transplant, carrying out open heart surgery at Papworth Hospital, while on work experience at the Cambridgeshire facility.