Tuesday, October 03, 2006

The Brit politicians in charge of this should be tarred and feathered

Was at Florida Cracker and found a link to this article:

A paratrooper wounded in Afghanistan was threatened by a Muslim visitor to the British hospital where he is recovering.

Seriously wounded soldiers have complained that they are worried about their safety after being left on wards that are open to the public at Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham.

On one occasion a member of the Parachute Regiment, still dressed in his combat uniform after being evacuated from Afghanistan, was accosted by a Muslim over the British involvement in the country.

Oh, the MoD has it well in hand, though:
The Ministry of Defence, which said that it had no record of threatening incidents, indicated that there was a military security presence at the hospital and it co-operated closely with local police.

A MoD spokesman said there was "appropriate security" at Selly Oak for the 11 servicemen currently being treated.

This despite "A relative of the Para said the man had twice walked on to the ward where two other soldiers and four civilians were being treated without once being challenged by staff."

She had a link to this one, too:
One soldier recovering from a gunshot wound has described how he spent three weeks in a bed next to a mentally handicapped man who was unable to care for or clean himself.

Another soldier at the hospital recalled one of his comrades who had lost a leg screaming in agony because the morphine had worn off. The pain was so intense that the soldier fainted twice during the 45 minutes he had to wait before a doctor could be found to administer more morphine.


It seems the Brits went a bit overboard with their 'peace dividend':
Before the strategic defence review that followed the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, there were seven military hospitals. But under a programme entitled "Defence Cost Study 15" in 1994, all but one were closed. Royal Hospital Haslar, in Portsmouth, survived but is now being mothballed and is due to close next year when the site will be sold to a developer.

After the closure of the service hospitals, special military wards were created in a number of NHS hospitals which were manned by Forces medical staff. But the MoD has confirmed that this policy has been abandoned because staff shortages and the so-called high tempo of operations made them "unsustainable".

Ok, this dumb Okie has a question: if the 'high tempo' of operations makes keeping a military ward in a hospital "unsustainable", why the !*##% don't they stop the sale of Royal Hospital Haslar and USE THE DAMN PLACE?

There is no excuse for wounded troops being treated this way. Period.

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