Thanks, BEags!
It was all to safeguard investment in the frontline, of course.....
and it took into account the number of personnel deployed.....
"Defence Medical Services
1. The Defence Costs Study generated considerable change to the size and shape of the Defence Medical Services. Two fundamental criteria are being used to guide their re-organisation which, when complete, will save over £500 million over the next ten years:
The standard of medical care provided to the armed forces should be equal to the best provided under the National Health Service.
The size of the uniformed medical service should be based on assessments of the number of personnel required to deploy with our front-line forces.
2. Primary care in the armed forces remains the responsibility of the single Services. It will be provided by the most cost-effective combination of the Department's military and civilian resources, the National Health Service and the private health care sector.
3. One recommendation of the Defence Costs Study was the formation of new defence medical Agencies. From May, secondary care will be managed as a tri-Service Defence Agency, headed by a Chief Executive who reports to the Surgeon General. Secondary care for the armed forces in the United Kingdom is centred on a single tri-Service hospital at Haslar in Gosport. This is complemented by a continuing presence at the Duchess of Kent Hospital at Catterick and by Service medical staff working in three new Ministry of Defence Hospital Units at National Health Service district general hospitals at Derriford in Plymouth, Frimley Park in Surrey and Peterborough in Cambridgeshire.
4. The Princess Mary's Hospital in Cyprus and the Defence Services Medical Rehabilitation Centre at RAF Headley Court have also been incorporated into the secondary care agency. The closure of the Queen Elizabeth Military Hospital at Woolwich was brought forward to September, when the hospital was transferred to the National Health Service. The Princess Mary RAF Hospital at Halton, the Cambridge Military Hospital at Aldershot and the Princess Alexandra RAF Hospital at Wroughton all closed earlier this year.
5. In Germany, as a result of market testing, secondary health care arrangements for our forces and primary care for the Army are being implemented by The Health Alliance, formed from staff of the Defence Medical Services, the Soldiers' Sailors' and Airmen's Families Association health services and the Guy's and St Thomas's Hospital National Health Service Trust. In future, secondary health care will be provided in areas designated for Service personnel and their dependants in German civilian hospitals located close to Army camps and RAF stations. As a result of these changes, the two Service hospitals at Wegberg and Rinteln will close.
6. Significant savings have been achieved through the rationalisation of medical training under a Director General Medical Training. The resultant Defence Medical Training Organisation is being reviewed for agency status. A medical supplies Agency responsible for the provision of medical equipment and drugs and arrangements for blood transfusion was launched in March. And dentists from all three Services have been brought into a single, tri-Service Agency which was also launched in March.
7. Wherever possible, opportunities will continue to be taken to rationalise property. The need for the Royal Defence Medical College to be sited at Millbank is being examined."
Haslar's closure needs to be cancelled, and Halton, as the one remaining hospital still owned by the MoD, needs to be rescued from its slide into dereliction and re-opened. Two military hospitals doesn't seem excessive for today's pace of operations, and I'm sure that the local NHS trusts would welcome the extra capacity for civilian patients.