Memorandum from the Haslar Task Force
I write on behalf of the Haslar Task
Force to make representations in relation to Defence Medical Services.
The Haslar Task Force comprises representatives of each of the
three political Parties and includes medical and other professionals.
It is supported by Gosport Borough Council and Fareham Borough
Council.
The Government announced in December
1998 that the Ministry of Defence would withdraw support from
the Royal Hospital Haslar which was then the only remaining military
hospital in the United Kingdom. This decision was based on the
recommendation of the Lawrence Committee which recommended that
the Ministry of Defence should not be in the business of hospital
management. Effectively, the umbilical link between Defence medical
practitioners and Service patients was broken with the intention
that Defence medical staff would train within the National Health
Service and Service personnel would similarly be treated by the
National Heath Service. After consideration of various other sites
it was eventually announced that there would be a centre for Defence
medical excellence at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham where £200m.
was to be spent to build a new Centre for Defence Medicine which
would operate in conjunction with the University of Birmingham
Hospital Trust. Subsequently, the £200m. development was
abandoned for lack of funds. The original plan to have a centre
of administration and of accommodation which would provide the
focus of the esprit de corps of Defence Medical Services has therefore
not materialised. The plan to improve retention of staff, and
particularly doctors, has therefore failed.
Various plans have been considered to
rectify the situation and the latest plan involves the conversion
of Royal Air Force Lichfield to take over the role of administration
and training. Whilst Lichfield is in the Greater Birmingham area,
it is not close to Selly Oak and there will be no meaningful synergy
between the two sites. The question which now arises is how to
rectify the position and create a Defence medical environment
which will improve retention of trained staff. There is the further
point that Service personnel prefer, if possible, to be treated
in a Service environment. It is also well established that Service
personnel recover more quickly when treated together in a service
environment. Government has recognised this, to some extent, by
creating a Service Ward at Selly Oak but there is an unmet need
for Service hospital accommodation for Service personnel who are
recuperating or in need of less acute treatment.
Selly Oak appears to be succeeding in
providing acute treatment to Service personnel who are brought
out of Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere by air through Brize Norton
or Birmingham airport. What Birmingham cannot do is provide the
needed Centre for Defence Medical Services with adjacent accommodation,
training, sports and messing facilities. Birmingham is not a popular
location for Service personnel and their accommodation in particular
is widespread and unsatisfactory. There is scope and need for
facilities to be provided elsewhere and the best solution would
be in South Hampshire where there is the largest concentration
of Service personnel. The Royal Hospital Haslar has exceptionally
good facilities. It is currently operated by Portsmouth Hospitals
Trust and this arrangement will continue until 2009 when a PEI
rebuild will be completed at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham,
Portsmouth. Until the Ministry of Defence withdrawal on 31 March
2007, Haslar provided messing and other facilities for Defence
medical staff. Medical training takes place at Fort Blockhouse
adjacent to Haslar. These arrangements are secure and satisfactory
and there is no need for them to change. We therefore propose
that the Ministry of Defence should study a South Hampshire solution
to the problems of Defence Medical Services. Acute medical care
can continue to be provided through Selly Oak and the University
of Birmingham Hospitals Trust. Rather than the development of
RAF Lichfield (where a PFI project is already seriously over budget
without having yet reached Main Gate), the Ministry of Defence
should study a project of developing the required resources at
Haslar/Blockhouse, Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth (where
there is already a Ministry of Defence hospital unit) and the
University of Southampton Hospital. Such links would provide the
requisite medical experience to Defence medical staff and would
also provide the facilities which currently cannot easily be provided
in the Birmingham area.
The Ministry of Defence must recognise
that the strategy of moving all Defence Medical Services to the
Birmingham area has failed. Recruitment of doctors and other medical
staff has remained satisfactory which is not surprising because
the Armed Forces provide a subsidised and attractive entry to
the medical profession. Retention, however, has not only failed
to improve but is deteriorating. Doctors, and in particular the
key specialities of orthopaedic surgery, general surgery, general
medicine and anaesthetics, find the career choices of being located
in Birmingham (most likely) or an MDHU (less likely) together
with repeated attachments in Iraq and Afghanistan to be unattractive.
We trust that your Committee will visit
Haslar and Fort Blockhouse as part of its studies. Indeed, we
regard such a visit as essential if you are to have a satisfactory
appreciation of defence medical training and practice.
The Ministry of Defence has been stubborn
in its determination to focus Defence medicine on Birmingham.
The strategy has not succeeded and cannot succeed. The South Hampshire
way ahead would provide a solution and the Ministry of Defence
should implement a study of this alternative.
Peter Viggers MP
Haslar Task Force
15 August 2007
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