Originally Posted by
ORAC
Grauniad: Charities criticise shortfall in care for injured troops
.......The MoD has succumbed to pressure and agreed to set up a "military-managed ward" at Selly Oak hospital, Birmingham, which includes the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine. Soldiers admitted to the hospital from Iraq and Afghanistan with severe war wounds have been sharing wards with civilians. It is one of the measures that will be announced in response to growing pressure from military medics and service charities about the treatment handed out to the increasing number of British troops wounded in foreign operations, well-placed sources have told the Guardian.
But some charities made it clear yesterday they do not believe the measures go far enough. "There is a fundamental principle that people who have been blown up should not be looked after by someone who doesn't understand. It's obvious," a senior charity official said.
Former military officers say separate military wards were part of a deal made within the MoD when the decision to close military hospitals was taken by the Conservative government 10 years ago. The deal was never implemented.
Sue Freeth, director of welfare at the British Legion, said yesterday that one Selly Oak ward was unlikely to be enough. She also said the MoD had not been sufficiently active in ensuring that wounded soldiers and their families knew how to contact service charities as quickly as possible. "We not want to come across people by accident," she added........
Hi folks
This time last year I was half way through a 5 week stay in Selly Oak Hospital following a pretty nasty accident. My orthopaedic consultant was the RAF Wing Co you may have seen on the news reports of Prince Charles' visit to the hospital yesterday and he is a great surgeon and nice guy to boot. Most of the nursing staff who treated me were also military and a damn fine bunch they are too.
There were a number of military guys on the ward where I spent the majority of the 5 weeks and the fact is that there was no security for them. If anyone was of the same inclination as the aforementioned muslim then they could have had a dig at any one of the servicemen being treated on the ward.
The staff did try and keep us civvies in seperate bays, but at times this simply just wasn't possible, and it created incredibly awkward situations. What does a civilian like me say to a young guy who has been flown back to the UK suffering from significant life changing injuries in war? You try to be as friendly as you can but naturally it proved very difficult when the guy has got peers and colleagues down the corridor that he can't get to speak to - and these are the people they need to be with at that time.
I don't profess to know anything about the closures of military hospitals, and won't say anything negative about the care I recieved and am still receiving, but these guys need to be in their own exclusive wards / hospitals wherever possible I would say.
Just an observation from a concerned reader.
Take care out there.
Gareth