16.2 |
Support for injured Service Personnel
and veterans
Military
medical support was organised in four tiers, on the basis of the
medical
capabilities
and resources available:
•
Role 1
(broadly equivalent to Echelon 1 for maritime forces) medical
support was
integral or
allocated to a small unit, and included the capabilities for
providing
first aid,
immediate lifesaving measures, and triage.
•
Role 2 support
was normally provided at larger unit level, and
included
pre-hospital care.
•
Role 3 support
was normally provided at Division level and above. It
included
specialist
diagnostic resources, and specialist surgical and medical
capabilities.
Support
would usually be provided in field hospitals and (as Echelon 3)
in
hospital ships.
•
Role 4 support
was the definitive hospital and rehabilitative care of
patients.
That would
usually be provided in the UK.8
25.
General Sir
Kevin O’Donoghue, Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Health)
(DCDS(H))
from
September 2002 to 2004, told the Inquiry that medical planning was
“quite
advanced”
by the time he took up post.9
Staffing
plans were in place and gaps in medical
equipment
and supplies had been identified, although approval had not yet
been
received to
begin procurement to fill those gaps.
26.
On 31 October,
Mr Blair agreed that the UK should offer Package 3 to the US on
the
same basis
as Package 2, for planning purposes.10
27.
In early
December, an MOD official invited Mr Geoff Hoon, the Defence
Secretary,
to agree
that the MOD should hold detailed talks with the Department of
Health (DoH)
on the
withdrawal of Regular and Reserve medical personnel from the NHS,
and on
the
reception of casualties under the RAMP.11
Package 3
would require around 2,000
medical
personnel, of whom approximately 60 percent would be Reservists.
The majority
of those
Reservists would be working within the NHS; their withdrawal would
have a
“local
impact”. DoH was pressing the MOD for details on the withdrawal of
medical
Reservists.
28.
The official
also advised that the procurement of medical equipment through
the
Urgent
Operational Requirement (UOR) mechanism to support Packages 0
(Special
Forces
only) and Package 1 was under way. The Treasury was expected to
authorise
procurement
of medical equipment to support Package 2 shortly. The MOD’s
Directorate
of
Capability, Resources and Scrutiny (DCRS) had not yet approved the
business case
8
NATO,
Logistics
Handbook, October
1997.
9
Public
hearing, 14 July 2010, pages 4-5.
10
Letter
Wechsberg to Watkins, 31 October 2002, ‘Iraq: Military
Options’.
11 Minute
PS/VCDS to PS/Secretary of State [MOD], 6 December 2002, ‘Medical
Support to Operations
against
Iraq’.
43