I have always imagined that training for a decent regiment in the IG is a bit like the scenes out of Starship Troopers - where the trainer keeps giving them object lessons such as throwing a knife through their hand... then shouting "Medic!" in a manner of fact way.
Well these are the guys that have to wade in the middle of the battle and perform that function. Somehow I do not think there is a Geneva Convention on Red Cross/Medics in the 40K universe so they are still tooled up.
These are pretty much all the old metal models - they had some great character and I have finally got around to painting them up.