petition for a military hospital

[charles47]

I agree with your last point Excalibur and although I understand where your first point is coming from it's more about the type of wounds these soldiers will have - often requiring specialism in levels of physical trauma and specialist rehab that is simply impossible to find spread all over the UK.

In that one sense it makes far more sense to concentrate the little expertise there is around in the one place until the soldiers reach a point where they can be transferred either to a more local hospital/rehab unit, or home.

[g.herschel]

Veterans need their own hospital, servicemen/woman believe it or not are different from us ordinary folks they need their mates around them not just from their own regiment but just service personnel they need to be together obviously some injuries like burns , head injuries & spinal injuries need special help .
At the moment the M.O.D. have taken over wards in some hospitals i think the main one is in Birmingham.
It`s a sad fact of life that we have to go to war iam against all armed conflict STAN suffered with P.T.S.D. from 1945 and right up to his death 2006 -he still had nightmares not just because of his 5 years in captivity but what he saw as a 19 year old as he fought to defend the retreat to Dunkirk by the way they did not even know the retreat was on. the M.O.D. have some of the best doctors & nurses they if not posted overseas should have their own dedicated hospital ive had contact with many service groups and iam sure most families would want their sons / daughters in M.O.D. hospital.

[Lazydaisy]

THe last two posts have made me wonder.

If a serviceman or woman has to have treatment a long way from home, does the MOD fund family members to stay nearby, so that they can support their loved one?

[g.herschel]

The S.P. Veterans Agency can help, also Help for Hero`s - S.S.A.F.A. - BRIT LEGION & REGIMENTS but most of them are in fact charities .

[Guest]

If it had not been for the Military Hospital at Woolwich that Dad went into in 1943 he would not have lived till 1987 he was only 69 but lived a lot longer than he would have with out that hospital.
So yes build a military hospital.
John.

[Kev4]

I've coped this from another forum, I feel it explains very well why we need a Military Hospital.

the existing facility is a ward at civilian selly oak hospital. its a trauma ward for military personel staffed by military nurses doctores etc.
there is insuffucient room to cope with the influx of injured some of whom have to spend a long time there before going for rehab at hedley court (if their lucky!!). expanding that faciliy would mean reducing civilian beds.
the staff at the ward are trained for the type of injuries that forces personal receive, which are different from 'normal' injuries often due to physical forces involvedfrom bullits/shrapnal /mines etc. there is also the mental trauma involved, which again they are trained to deal with.
as an example my lads shrapnal wound in his leg involved operations to unzip the whole lower leg or lose it, this was necessary due to explosive forces ( so im told ) this may not have happend in a civi ward. also he was mentally affected by it and would explode with anger if anyone burst a crisp bag near him( anything that went with a bang) after having got out from under the table. this went on for a considerable time. the staff were great and understood exactly what was causing the problems and how to deal with them. there is aslo a need for more staff to help deal with the mental traumas.
I realise that and hope that this facility could eventuall be closed down if it were not needed, but sadly these days it will not happen in the foreseable future
hope this helps to explain why there is a need for a dedicated unit for the forces.

Kevin

[philippa_150712]

signed

[Scally]

If it had not been for the Military Hospital at Woolwich that Dad went into in 1943 he would not have lived till 1987 he was only 69 but lived a lot longer than he would have with out that hospital.
So yes build a military hospital.
John.

i dont disagree that larger cities like London and Glasgow justify dedicated acute treatment facilities, but these should be part of large NHS hospitals where they have access to all the specialist diagnostic equipment...and all medical and surgical specialities.
One of the biggest problem areas for ex-servicemen is mental health - but hospitals wont heal that damage - veterans need better community-based mental health services too.

[NanaNana]

Did the petition get signed and delivered in time then? As ex-WRAF, I believe that the NHS general hospital staff, doctors, nurses etc. have never seen or experienced wounds and damage done to people by war. How can they treat military personnel who are physically and mentally scarred by war, when they never experience or understand that sort of trauma, in civilian life? The wounds receive their main treatments whilst still abroad, but they are not completely healed or recovered from when personnel return here. We desperately need SEVERAL totally designated military hospitals, in various parts of the country. One ward at Selly Oak is a joke. Like having one single maternity ward for the whole of the country. Utterly ridiculous and there would be a national outcry if that were the case.

[Brindleboy123]

I had a quick look and can't see this posted anywhere. If it is my sincere apologies.

I think this to be a worthy cause and thought others on here might agree. Apologies if it offends or upsets anyone.

We are trying to assist with a petition to the UK Government to create a dedicated Military & Veterans Hospital within the UK.

To give you some background, 2 Para have already sent back over 50 casualties to the UK from their current tour alone. Selly Oak, the only military dedicated ward in UK, cannot accommodate anywhere near this number, so when all of the casualties from other battle groups are added to the figure, how is ONE ward in an NHS hospital going to cope?

In truth it cannot!!!! The individual troops are sent home to recover, relying on NHS and the visiting services available, which themselves are over committed.

More names are needed for this petition, and quite cynically, “Downing Street " has put a time limit of one month for this to be achieved.

Sign now and do what you can. Please click the link below to sign (takes you to the Downing Street website). You will then receive an email to confirm your signature.

We need as many people as possible to sign this petition before 14th August. Could you also if in agreement please pass this on to as many people as possible and ask them to do the same thing?

Whilst I agree it is an awful situation, I am not convinced on the argument for a dedicated hospital.

Sadly, forces personnel who woud use such a facility would have a very broad spectrum of needs. It is important that the medical teams that would be employed in such a hospital must have ongoing experience and although we are very sadly in a position whereby more and more casualties need to be admitted, in reality would this be sufficient numbers for consultants to "keep up" with the level of hands on experience. The UK has excellent specialists in all fields of medicine spread out around the country. It would be sad if patients were unable to have access to these because they were all channed through one hospital.

Forces personnel were always given priority on waiting lists for surgery related to any injury. I believe this is one of the best ways forward, but would be interested in other views.