Army chiefs snub calls for military hospital
MILITARY top brass have snubbed calls for a hospital dedicated to Britain’s Armed Forces and veterans, the Daily Express can reveal today.
In a pointed rebuff to UK troops, they insist current NHS provision is adequate and defiantly refuse to see the need for a specialist military medical unit.
The Army’s most senior medical officer has said the case is now closed and he is not willing to discuss the issue any further.
Lieutenant General Louis Lillywhite made his views known following an audit which found there were no more than 65 service personnel in-patients currently in NHS wards. “That does not make a military hospital,” he said.
“Furthermore I think it’s right that I, the Surgeon General, should be focused on deployed hospitals rather than peacetime hospitals.
“As far as I’m concerned the argument is closed – the numbers don’t justify it.”
His comments have infuriated war veterans and campaigners who say there is an overwhelming need for the dedicated care and treatment of our troops and veterans.
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Over the weekend, VC hero Johnson Beharry, Britain’s most-decorated serving soldier, attacked the Government over its treatment of traumatised troops.
As far as I’m concerned the argument is closed – the numbers don’t justify it.
Lance Corporal Beharry, 29, whose brave actions saved 20 comrades in Iraq, said the lack of resources for helping depressed veterans was a “disgrace”.
Johnson, who was badly wounded in the head in Al Amarah in 2004, said he went to an NHS hospital one night to get help for appalling pain – and was forced to wait for three hours before he was treated.
He said: “Ex-servicemen and women do not get the treatment they need. The Government is not doing enough for soldiers.”
Falklands hero Denzil Connick, who supported the Daily Express Hospital For Heroes crusade, said: “If you speak to anyone who has been injured in the Armed Forces they will all say a dedicated military hospital is needed. I will argue until I am blue in the face that the Government has not got to grips with the veterans situation.”
Lance Corporal Connick, 51, who lost a leg in battle, delivered his own petition to Downing Street, urging the Government to look after returning troops.
It was signed by 113,000 people, including Falklands hero Simon Weston. Lance Cpl Connick led the Daily Express march on Downing Street to hand in our petition of over 50,000 signatures in September.
Shadow Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox said: “Our duty of care lasts a lifetime and in areas such as mental health we need to find ways of picking up problems which may take years to manifest themselves.”
More than 5,000 servicemen have been injured in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001 and a significant number complain they are forgotten.
Lt Gen Lilywhite said he had visited Selly Oak Hospital, in Birmingham, where most troops wounded in action overseas are sent, and was “quite content with the quality of care”.
He claimed “grumbles” about the ageing Victorian hospital would vanish next year.
He said: “Selly Oak does not give the ambience of a modern hospital. The new hospital in Birmingham will.” In December, Gordon Brown wrote to the Daily Express ignoring our pleas for a dedicated military hospital.
Mr Brown explained that five major NHS Trust hospitals would help provide care for returning wounded personnel and said there was “no difference” in the medical treatment of veterans and civilians.
