Mr. Ian McDonald

Ian McDonald has over 30 years healthcare experience as a nurse and paramedic gained in both military and civilian organizations. He began his career as a combat medical technician in the British Army, where he was trained to provide life-saving resuscitation and immediate first aid on the Battlefield. He later moved into General Adult Nursing and as a Staff Nurse Ian took part in his country's first Nurse-Anesthetist training trials before this career pathway was formally established in the UK. He specialized in Coronary Care Nursing at West Middlesex University Hospital.
Ian has since worked in secondary and tertiary hospitals in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. In addition he has held operational, managerial and director positions in primary care, education and training, staff development and strategic planning.
One of Ian's greatest challenges was leading a multi-disciplinary healthcare team on a United Nations Humanitarian Peacekeeping Mission in the former Yugoslavia where his team provided a combined primary care and emergency care function to UN personnel and local nationals in areas of mass destruction and with limited resources during winter temperatures of minus -20*C in Eastern Croatia. He again worked in the region several years later as the Nursing Director of a Field Hospital in Bosnia & Herzegovina which provided helicopter delivered Fast Response Medical Teams to emergency situations in the mountainous region of Sipovo. Ian obtained a MSc from London University's London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and London School of Economics and is a past Fellow of the Institute for Leadership and Management in the UK. He was made a Member of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) by his Queen her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second for Gallantry in the line of duty as an operational Nursing officer at a major terrorist explosion in Northern Ireland during which he administered lifesaving first aid to victims of the bomb blast and coordinated casualty evacuation by air and by road from the scene. More recently Ian was part of the UK's award winning National Health Service Modernisation Agency which successfully introduced New Ways of working initiatives that improved efficiency, satisfaction and patient safety in surgical pathways, support worker programmes and recruitment. Working in primary care as a regional manager and nurse lead for child protection, he was the project manager for the successful implementation of a nurse-led out of hours Telephone Assessment and Triage service that improved access to healthcare efficiency and safety for a widely dispersed population in North West Europe. Before coming to the Middle East, Ian held 2 posts in Germany as Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Hospital Trust’s Head of Quality and Hospital Operations Manager on their European Contract