‘You just got on with it. The response was amazing’

times, that was upsetting.” The Duchess replied: “I suppose at the time you didn’t know how big or what the extent of the incident was. You just got your heads down and got on with it. The response was amazing.

“I presume you are trained to cope with this but hope this kind of incident never happens. “What you do is remarkable.” In total 14 victims were taken to King’s. One with minor injuries was able to leave quickly. The remaining 13 needed treatment for stab wounds, including seven in a critical condition who are still receiving round-the-clock care.

Dr Malcolm Tunnicliff, clinical director of the emergency department, said: “We prepare for incidents like this 24 hours a day but it’s really nice when someone like the Duchess of Cambridge comes in and sees what we do first hand and says thanks.

“It gives the patients a lift, it gives the staff a lift that they are being recognised. All staff in the NHS want these days is to be recognised. They get knocked for so much and actually for someone like that to come and recognise what they do is a massive lift.” Later the Duchess spent time at the bedsides of those still needing treatment – that part of the visit was closed to the media. She also met patients already discharged but who returned to talk to her about their experience.

In the attack, three Islamist terrorists crashed a rented van into crowds on London Bridge and then went on a knife rampage through nearby Borough Market before being shot dead by police.

Last week Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall visited patients and staff at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel in the aftermath of the atrocity.