UK NEWS
DAILY EXPRESS CRUSADE: VICTORY FOR OUR WOUNDED HEROES
WILL IT BE HERE? Catterick Garrison is a possible site
By Nick Fagge
A DEDICATED military hospital for our Armed Forces heroes is to be built, defence chiefs confirmed yesterday.
It is a victory for the Daily Express Hospital for Heroes Crusade that lobbied for better treatment for the growing number of injured soldiers, sailors and airmen, many of who feel forgotten.
Britain became the only country in Europe without a dedicated armed forces hospital when the MoD closed the Royal Military Hospital Haslar in March 2007.
A 50,000-name petition signed by Daily Express readers demanding an end to the neglect of our wounded forces was delivered to Downing Street in September.
Yesterday MoD officials confirmed the multi-million pound centre will go ahead. Conservative MP Patrick Mercer said: “This shows what a high profile campaign backed by the power of the Daily Express can achieve.
“But why has it taken so long for the Government to realise the need?”
Mr Mercer, who as an Army officer was treated for spinal injuries at the Royal Military Hospital Haslar in Gosport, Hants., after serving in Northern Ireland, added: “This will be a needed boost for our wounded men and women.”
Severely disabled soldiers will also be given the opportunity to continue in the Army under a new set of policies designed to improve the care of troops.
The plans have been drawn up amid growing concerns about gaps in the military’s welfare programme.
Following consultation with injured troops, the new hospital will be reminiscent of the convalescent homes that cared for troops injured in the First and Second World Wars.
Known as the Army Convalescence Centre, the unit will allow the “long-term injured” to live together in a military environment where they can receive rehabilitation. There will also be accommodation for visiting family members.
“No soldier wants to be sitting at home permanently,” said Col Barney Haugh, the Army’s assistant director of personnel services.
“Soldiers work closely together, and if they are with their mates it may well help the recuperation process. We are not just talking about guys injured in Iraq and Afghanistan but also soldiers who are ill or involved in a training incident or road traffic accident.”
Possible locations include Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire and Bulford Garrison, Wiltshire.
More than 5,000 servicemen have been injured in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001.
A significant number who have suffered severe limb injuries, spine and brain damage and those made blind or deaf, complain they are forgotten.
Lance Cpl Daniel Twiddy, 27, told how the MoD abandoned him after he was injured in Iraq in 2003.
He was forced to quit the Army following Haslar’s closure.
Daniel, who served in the Queen’s Royal Lancers, suffered burns and was left deaf in one ear after a friendly fire incident.
He said: “Dedicated hospitals are a lot better for the morale of the soldiers because if you are in a hospital full of civilians they don’t understand what you’ve been through.”
WHY BUILD NEW HOSPITAL ??
25.11.08, 11:34am
Why should we have to have a new hospital built when Haslar Hospital in Gosport is still OPEN and performing many, many operations.
Do people in the media and the rest of the country not know that Haslar Hospital is still open ( although now in the NHS' hands ) and that it is still fully functional, very, very secure and was recently found to be the SECOND cleanest hospital in the country and amongst many,many facilitiers there has grounds ideal for the recouperation of wounded / ill patients, etc..
Mr.Mercer especially, should know that Haslar is still there and open, and that the site is currently being looked at by private medical groups keen on using it ( probably charging the MOD in future to use it no doubt ! ) and that the Save Haslar Taskforce have been fighting for many, many years to retain Haslar for use by all.
Send a team down to look at Haslar Hospital and what excellent facilities it has and what both the MOD and Government appear to be allowing to be lost..
If you really want a story to report, one that will embarrass many people in Westminster and the MOD, get down to Haslar Hospital as it seems clear that you are campaigning for something without knowing the facts !!!!
Your readers and the whole country deserve to know the REAL TRUTH about just what Haslar has to offer and your ( and other newspapers ) failure to highlight this is nothing short of criminal, since it seems you are dependent on what you are told rather than investigate it.
Do not allow this scandal to continue, send reporters to Haslar Hospital and let people know what is REALLY HAPPENING IN THIS CAUSE FOR ARMED FORCES CARE !!!!
Please, please investigate this, send people down here and deliver what everyone wants and what they already have now but do not know it !!
• Posted by: SAVEHASLAR • Report Comment
AT LAST
24.11.08, 9:19pm
At last this useless government has seen some sense. However, why don't they just re-open Royal Naval Hospital Haslar. The last i heard it was full of up to date/state of the art equipment in moth balled condition.
• Posted by: sparkspopeye • Report Comment
HOSPITAL
24.11.08, 9:15pm
well done Express. The government have at last given in to peole pressure - I signed the petition and received an e mail as a result from the gvernment with a whitewash theme. Now they are going to do something. Better late than never but just get on with it asap. as yet another seerviceman has to-day died.. I just wish they were all home trying to turn this country around instead of being where they are not wanted.
• Posted by: SRM • Report Comment
WELL DONE DAILY EXPRESS....
24.11.08, 8:44am
...thank goodness the MOD have listened to what the British public want and are at last building a Military Hospital for our Armed Forces. Is it going to be a Hospital where they are taken immediately for treatment or a Convalescence Home? There is a difference.
Could it not be built in the South West of England maybe on the coast or somewhere beautiful which has a lot of sunshine, which will speed up their recovery. There must be an empty Stately Home down that way somewhere that could be given over to this project.
• Posted by: Disgruntled • Report Comment
BUT WILL THE WOUNDED GET THE BEST TREATMENT?
24.11.08, 4:54am
Post traumatic stress disorder is common in modern warfare. 80% of casualties are brain injuries. The Kadir-Buxton Method is a thirty second cure for mental illness, the MOD inform me that they cannot use it until the NHS uses it. They in turn have to wait for the Minister for Health, who has to wait for NICE. NICE cannot find a psyciatrist to test out the invention because it would end the psyciatric profession, and leave their work for the local practice nurse. The psychiatrists are happy to see one in four people suffer for an average of five years due to mental illness as long as the money keeps rolling in. What an odious farce.
• Posted by: RedRoseAndy • Report Comment
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