The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
urgency,
although “we should not take any satisfaction in reaching what is
only the basic
level of
care that our wounded servicemen deserve”.
76.
The challenge
now was to ensure that clinical, welfare and administrative
support
was
delivered to injured personnel in a holistic manner wherever they
were in the
healthcare
system.
77.
In February
2008, the House of Commons Defence Committee described the
clinical
care for
Service Personnel injured on operations as “second to
none”.45
The
Committee
commented,
however, that “many of the improvements … are relatively recent,
and
there has
been a great deal of change over the past 18 months. The MOD should
not be
complacent:
they have had to learn important lessons and it is now clear that
the picture
at Selly
Oak was not always so positive.”
78.
Specific
issues cited in the report included the provision of toiletries and
basic
clothing
for Service Personnel, travel assistance for the families of
injured Service
Personnel,
and accommodation for the relatives of parents. The report stated
that
improvements
were taking place, but “some of the slack had been taken up
by
welfare organisations”.
79.
Mr Adam
Ingram, Minister for the Armed Forces from 2001 to 2007, told the
Inquiry:
“It became
very clear early on that there was a problem at Selly Oak. It
wasn’t the
question of
the quality of the medical care. It was the fact that they were in
mixed
[military/civilian]
wards. You had soldiers who had been attended to by
civilian
nurses,
civilian doctors and in the next bed there may well be a civilian
injured
person or
old person.
“That
became a big issue. My instinct initially was … that if I was
injured, I just
wanted the
best medical care …
“But, as a
result of a number of visits, Ministerial visits, it became
abundantly clear
we needed
to do other things. So progressively, the number of military
personnel,
in terms
of the medical care, changed …”46
80.
Lt Gen
Lillywhite told the Inquiry:
“It quickly
became apparent that returning casualties actually wanted to be
looked
after by
the military …
“Although
at no stage … was the clinical care of casualties coming back from
Iraq
compromised,
there was an unhappiness amongst the patients themselves and
their
relatives
about the lack of military involvement in both their care, although
actually
much more
so in their welfare support.
45
Seventh
Report from the House of Commons Defence Committee, Session
2007-2008, Medical
Care
for the Armed
Forces, HC327, pages
3 and 13.
46
Public
hearing, 16 July 2010, page 49.
52