Chris Moon
Mr Ritchie praised the army and its medical staff for the care and compassion shown to his son.
“He is at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham and when he is well enough to travel he will be transferred to Hedley Court in Epsom for prosthetic rehabilitation and physiotherapy.
“Prior to this, all I have heard via the media are negative comments and bad publicity regarding the handling of the troops and feel this is unjustified by my experiences of the aftercare attention my son and family have received since the incident, both from his regiment, The Scots Guards, and the welfare and nursing staff at Selly Oak where Jack is currently within the critical ward.
“Selly Oak is bursting at the seams, with a huge influx of injured personnel following the recent publicised operation in Afghanistan, but the nursing staff there are coping admirably.
Such gratitude from the father of a soldier whose life will never be the same again.
It pleases me to note that Jack's regiment, the Scots Guards, are described as "faultless" and it shows the military do know how to look after each other, but also his comments show that Selly Oak is now well over-stretched. Isn't it time the MoD decided to open a hospital purely for military casualties? Not so many years ago there were a few military hospitals throughout the UK and now, with our troops serving in this bloody war, there is none. What other country closes down its military hospitals then sends thousands of their troops into hellish wars which are nothing to do with protecting Britain but far more to do with trying to behave like the principal players in asserting the New World Order?
Latest statistics from the MoD indicate that between January 1 and June 30 this year, there were 476 patients from Operation Herrick treated at either Selly Oak or Headland Court and of these 239 were battle injuries, 149 were non-battle injuries and 88 were natural causes.
Of these, 275 were new patients who had not previously been treated at either hospital for this injury or illness (95 were battle injuries, 100 were non-battle injuries and 80 were natural causes).
Wouldn't you think on the strength of these numbers a military hospital was a must? I've read all the arguments about Selly Oak having the best of everything to treat all casualties, but more often than not it's not the equipment that matters, but the surgeons, doctors and nursing staff. The army has the staff working at the front line and by all accounts are working miracles under very difficult conditions. If more medics could be trained to work within a military hospital here then it would alleviate the pressure on Selly Oak. Of course this suggestion would require the MoD to spend money which they don't have so there is little chance of our military acquiring their own medical premises.
I suspect a few MoD funded convalescent hospitals are out of the question too but thankfully the public are coming to the rescue in that regard. Now some families will no longer have to travel hundreds to miles to see their wounded loved ones once they have survived their critical injuries which are treated in Selly Oak.
The UK government has a lot to answer for in relation to the welfare of our injured military personnel. After reading how other European countries care for their military, we have a big chasm of care to fill. What's the Tories policy about MoD funding? I suspect it will be the same as we have at present but I so hope I'm proved wrong.
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10 comments:
SR - to hope for any difference twixt Tory and Labour is wishing for the moon?
Perhaps, as I read somewhere, where the 646 of our 'elite' to serve in Afghanistan, lose a limb or two - maybe the odd 'enforced by-election' - we may then see our servicemen/women cared for much better!
oops, sorry - were the 646 etc........
Overdone the scotch!
WW it's no wonder you overdid the Scotch, anyone who has a thought for our 'protectors' would do something similar.
Many moons ago, there were, as you say, a number of military hospitals spread throughout the land. I could not then and still can not see any logic in closing them. When they weren't dealing with military injuries they served as an 'overspill' for NHS hospitals.
SR - to hope for any difference twixt Tory and Labour is wishing for the moon?
Ergo the last 12 years plus of Labour Government would have been no different under Tory management? I disagree wholeheartedly and this theme is very boring. Every post war Conservative Government has improved peoples' lives. Every Labour one screwed up. Still, if people are so convinced this is so, scrap elections and let Brown and Co. continue for ever. Let them have the resposibility of a 40 year Afghan unwinnable campaign. Just keep borrowing to fund it?
Plus they offered an excellent standard of service too Cato.
The problem is OR, I don't hear anything from the tories, they're silent mostly.
They have a superb chance to say they will provide a military hospital but not one word I've heard.
True labour have screwed up financially but please tell your party to come up with something instead of beating a man who speaks the truth about the NHS.
No there's a good example, D Cameron had the chance to say how he would improve the NHS to make it as good as many European countries but he decided to pillory Dan Hannan instead.
Subrosa,
we do not think as they do.
Every battle has it's business case and in the great big spread sheet where everything that has ever existed and will exist is pigeon holed, our military hospitals showed up in red cells and by the logic of the spreadsheet they were gone.
I remember working with an "entrepreneur" from Detroit/Paris who explained it all to me a decade ago. He showed me the universal spreadsheet.
Unless we realise that our lives are summed in a spreadsheet cell nothing that we perceive as real life will make sense.
The current debate/nondebate about the NHS in UK is couched in obfuscation precisely because any probing of this rent skimming machine will reveal to the general public just how callously health care in general in the UK is engineered for corporate spreadsheets to show black in their cash flow in cells.
Nothing else.
Heads up.
I believe you're spot on there Incoming and that's why no political party will rehash the NHS because only then would we see where all the money goes.
And it's not into patient care.
We have hospitals filling up with our maimed children while we wait calmly for an election that is not going to make a penny worth of difference. What will make the difference is, instead of hiding our wounded, we have the courage to take them into public view.
Archie McIndoe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_McIndoe#World_War_II
had the rights of it and shamed the British public into accepting horrific war wounds by his use of "society" women ( Debs etc) taking the badly wounded into theaters etc.
These are our children, put into harms way and damaged, we have the absolute duty to mend them as best we can physically, emotionally and to support them, without greetin about costs, benefits etc., for the rest of their lives.
And as for the tossers that put them there………………well, “revenge is mine sayeth the lord”, has a fine ring to it!
PS 1 The MOD have nae money errrrm,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, what about the subs, aircraft carriers, bank bail outs etc?
PS 2 there are, are there not, shed loads of private medical facilities in the UK that would benefit our damaged children? I’m sure the patriotic share holders would be happy to help (including a range of civil service “private” health schemes).
PS 3 and I can put a few hours into the pot in the Edinburgh Area and I didn’t want the any of the blasted labour sponsored wars in the first place
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