The Report of the Iraq Inquiry

27. Lord Boyce, Chief of the Defence Staff from 2001 to April 2003, told the Inquiry that

Ministers would have been informed of the MOD’s casualty estimates, as part of the

routine briefing process.

28. Although the Inquiry has seen no evidence that the Casualty Estimate paper was

shown to Ministers, it accepts that Ministers were informed of the MOD’s casualty

estimates.

29. The MOD established an effective medical capability in theatre to support Op TELIC

by 14 March 2003.

30. By 1 May, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had

ended, 33 British Service Personnel had died serving on Op TELIC and 81 had been

admitted to Role 3 hospitals.

31. Casualties would have been much higher if chemical and biological weapons had

been used.

32. The MOD planned and prepared effectively to provide medical care in support of

Op TELIC. Although some of the medical equipment and supplies procured by the MOD

arrived in theatre shortly after military operations began, there are no indications that the

quality of clinical care was compromised.

33. There were a number of significant improvements to the care provided to Service

Personnel over the course of Op TELIC.

34. From June 2006, the MOD, working closely with a number of charities, progressively

enhanced the rehabilitation facilities at Headley Court.

35. In August 2006, following visits by MOD Ministers and senior military officers to

injured Service Personnel recovering on civilian wards, the MOD began planning to

establish a Military Managed Ward (MMW) at Selly Oak hospital. The MOD assessed

that, while the quality of clinical care at Selly Oak was excellent, injured Service

Personnel would recover better in what Lieutenant General Louis Lillywhite, the Surgeon

General from 2006 to 2009, described as a “military bubble”.8

36. The MMW was established in December 2006 and was fully staffed by July 2007.

37. In his evidence to the Inquiry, Lt Gen Lillywhite highlighted the advances during

Op TELIC in the military’s understanding of how to save life at the point of injury, how

to sustain the quality of life of seriously injured individuals into the long term, and pain

management.

8 Public hearing, 20 July 2010, pages 33-34.

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