Robin Wilton's esoterica

According to the figures reported via this BBC page, UK forces deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan currently stand at 176 and 114 respectively. It's strangely difficult to find figures for injuries as opposed to deaths, but one could expect these to be correspondingly higher. For instance, I understand that in its most recent tour of duty in Afghanistan the 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, alone has sent 50 casualties back for treatment in the UK. (2 Para is one battalion out of nearly 8,000 UK troops currently serving in Afghanistan; another 4,000 are deployed in Iraq, and some 850 in the Balkans; full figures here).

In terms of what awaits injured service personnel when they get back to the UK - the picture is rife with conflicting messages. The chiefs of staff are caught on the horns of the classic dilemma: they want the military to be seen to be doing its best for those injured in service, but politics being what it is, sometimes the best way to get allocated funding is to show how badly it is needed.

By 2002, following a 1990s review of defence spending, 7 out of 8
dedicated military hospitals had been closed down. This may seem
strange, against a background of continuing long-term combat
commitments in the major theatres of Iraq and Afghanistan. The
exception - the Royal Hospital Haslar at Portsmouth, was expected to
stop taking new patients in 2002, but seems to have postponed the
ultimate unplugging of its life-support machine until next year. In this article from January 2007, Gen. Sir Mike Jackson (former head of the Army) expressed his belief that service personnel recover better if they are treated 'in a military environment' and with other military patients.

That prompted a media focus on the treatment of wounded service personnel; this quotation is from a fairly representative story: "Ministry of Defence figures revealed more than 2,100 troops have suffered psychiatric problems after returning from Iraq since 2003.

But many of them are waiting up to 18 months for NHS treatment, a delay branded "scandalous" by Combat Stress, the services mental health charity." (Daily Telegraph, March 2007)

And giving the other side of the story, here's a BBC article from March 2007, in which Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt
defends the military against criticism that wounded service personnel
were receiving poor treatment.

So what's the situation now?

- The Haslar hospital is still expected to close next year.
- For some years, the majority of UK service personnel have been treated in a single "military-managed" ward at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham. The ward is shared among military and civilian patients, and treatment is given by NHS and military nursing staff.
- On 4th July 2008 Derek Twigg (Defence Under-Secretary) announced plans to open a 100-bed 'military ward' at Birmingham New Hospital. As with Selly Oak, this will actually be a mixed military-civilian ward, in terms of both staff and patients. If everything runs to schedule, this new ward will not open until 2010 - after the existing unit at Haslar has been shut down.

All of which is a rather complicated way of asking you do do something much more simple. 

If it sounds to you as though injured front-line troops are being used as something of a political football, and if you feel that the issue of their treatment deserves to be reconsidered, please add your name to this petition on the Downing Street website. You must be a UK citizen or resident to vote - so expats are eligible.

Petition to create a dedicated military and veterans' hospital in the UK

The petition is only open until August 18th... so please engage the support of others and send a clear message.