Injured troops must get better NHS treatment, says Surgeon General

By Aislinn Simpson, The Daily Telegraph, 3 June 2008

Injured troops deserve better treatment on NHS wards, Britain's most senior military doctor has admitted.

Lieutenant-General Louis Lillywhite, the Surgeon General, said that double the number of troops are now surviving serious injuries than would have done during the Falklands conflict.

But while they receive high-quality emergency care while still on the frontline, he said the focus now needs to shift to improving follow-up treatment in British hospitals.

In the past, badly injured servicemen have been forced to share understaffed civilian wards where they have contracted infections and been subject to abuse by patients and staff.

"Those who are capable of surviving, we are making survive," Lt-Gen Lillywhite said as he presented a report on battlefield casualties.

"Three or four months ago that was our main effort. We have now got to turn to the quality of that survival."

He said it was impossible for all injured servicemen to be dealt with in military facilities because of a lack of manpower.

But he conceded that something had to be done to address the concern of politicians, patients and the public about the care they receive.

He said that improvements needed to be made in the use of prosthetic limbs for servicemen - many of whom have lost more than one limb yet survived - the reduction in infection rates, and pain relief.

"There is much to do," he admitted.

The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) now routinely logs every detail of injuries in theatre, from the type of injury and its severity, the length of time the casualty remained in a battlefield and, if deaths occur, whether it was possible to prevent them, given the safety of the scene and the injuries.

The figures showed that by mid-February, the Armed Forces had suffered 87 fatalities in Afghanistan, 114 personnel were seriously or very seriously injured, 1,133 injured personnel were admitted to field hospitals and 880 were evacuated to the UK.

In Iraq, 212 had died by mid-February, 212 were seriously or very seriously injured, 2,695 were admitted to field hospitals and 1,347 were evacuated to the UK.

A journal published by the RAMC reported that of the 76 deaths from trauma related injuries which occurred in Iraq and Afghanistan in the 12 months to April 2007, none could have been prevented.

Statistical evidence from Britain and the US suggested that the death rate from serious injuries was now between 12 to 15 per cent - roughly half the rate which occurred in the Falklands or Vietnam, Lt-Gen Lillywhite said.

Most seriously injured service personnel brought back to the UK are treated in civilian hospitals at first, although many will later be transferred to the military rehabilitation centre at Headley Court in Surrey.

There has been repeated criticism of the standard of care servicemen - most of whom have suffered head injuries, severe burns or lost limbs - receive in the civilian system.

At Selly Oak in Birmingham, troops have complained of dirty, mixed wards and of abusive treatment from staff.

Last month, Afghanistan veteran and paratrooper Capt Martin Hewitt said the "truth'' about the continued poor care for troops back in the UK had to be exposed as it was "unacceptable''.