Armed Forces: Medical Services

Lord Astor of Hever Excerpts

Monday 10th December 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Trefgarne]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the respective numerical strengths of the medical services of the Royal Navy, Army and the Royal Air Force, and what proportion of those personnel are reservists.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Astor of Hever)]

My Lords, I am sure the whole House will wish to join me in offering sincere condolences to the family and friends of Captain Walter Barrie, 1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, who was killed on operations in Afghanistan recently. My thoughts are also with the wounded, and I pay tribute to the courage and fortitude in which they face their rehabilitation.

On the Question, in April this year the numerical strength of the naval medical service was 1,650, of whom 60—just under 4%—were reservists. The strength of the army medical service was 8,040, of which 2,840—35%—were reservists, and the strength of the Royal Air Force medical service was 2,120, of which 190—9%—were reservists. Members of all three medical services, regular and reserve, are making extraordinary contributions to our medical capability in Afghanistan, and I pay tribute to them.

[Lord Trefgarne]

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for that helpful reply. If it is the policy—which I believe it is, and I support it—to increase the use of reservists in the medical services of our three Armed Forces, it is important that we have a good supply of experienced and trained medical personnel, particularly from the National Health Service. Is the Minister satisfied that the National Health Service, which itself is pressed in many areas, will be able to supply the number of personnel that will be required in future years, and that no unnecessary restrictions will be placed in their way?

[Lord Astor of Hever]

My Lords, I agree with my noble friend that we will need a good supply of reservists in future. NHS employees are free to join the reserves without any interference from their employer. If they come from a trust that does not have reserve-friendly HR policies—and these trusts are very rare—they can still join the reserves, but in the worst case they may have to take leave to train. We recognise, as did the previous Government, that my noble friend highlights a serious problem. The issue is being addressed by the reserves consultation document. We are consulting as widely as possible to ensure that we have the right relationship with employers and reservists to sustain these changes in future. We need to understand what difficulties employers face in releasing their staff and to do our best to mitigate them.

[Lord Rosser]

My Lords, we, too, offer our sincere condolences to the family and friends of Captain Walter Barrie. His death is another all-too-frequent reminder of the enormous sacrifices still being made by members of our Armed Forces in the service of our country.

The report of the public inquiry into the death of Iraqi civilian Baha Mousa found that military guidance on key ethical questions was not provided to regimental medical officers at the time. Is the Minister now satisfied that if there were to be an increase in the proportion of medical personnel who were reservists, appropriate guidance would always be given to them prior to deployment, and that they would be as able as regular medical officers to resist any pressures to prioritise their obligations or loyalties to the military over their ethical duties to patients? Further, will the medical services available to members of the Reserve Forces post-deployment be the same as the medical services available to members of the Regular Forces post-deployment?

[Lord Astor of Hever]

My Lords, in answer to the noble Lord’s first question, I am pretty certain that I can give him that assurance. Like a number of noble Lords, I have been to Afghanistan and seen the hospital at Camp Bastion. I talked to a number of reservists. They work to an incredibly high standard. The NHS is very grateful for what its personnel pick up there and are able to take back to their respective trusts.

[Lord Ribeiro]

My Lords, will the Minister explain to the House how the expertise of the Defence Medical Services in Afghanistan, many of whom are reservists, can be maintained and used to the benefit of the NHS when the drawdown occurs in 2014?

[Lord Astor of Hever]

My noble friend asks a very important question. I know that he was out in Afghanistan last year and saw the very good work that our regular and reservist medics do there. They have saved a lot of lives. There are two possible answers to my noble friend’s question: first, sharing experience through teaching in training in trauma centres and, secondly, clinical placements with coalition partners in areas of conflict.

[Lord Palmer of Childs Hill]

My Lords, from these Benches I express condolences at the losses referred to by the Minister. What work are the Government doing to examine the common features of the forces’ medical services so that we may stretch resources further by removing unnecessary duplication, perhaps in areas such as procurement or training?

[Lord Astor of Hever]

My Lords, several initiatives are under way to remove duplication by the single services’ medical services. The first, scheduled to be delivered on 1 April next year, is the new defence primary healthcare project. The current Royal Navy, Army and Air Force primary healthcare systems will start to combine to form defence primary healthcare under the command of a two-star medical officer. The aim is to develop and create an organisation made up of Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force and civilian medical personnel working jointly to benefit all the patients they serve, to safeguard the quality of healthcare for military personnel, their dependents and entitled civilians, and to maximise the forces’ generation capabilities.

[Lord West of Spithead]

My Lords, I agree with the Minister about the huge pride we have in our medical forces across the board. Not only are they at the cutting edge of skills to look after people who, very sadly, have suffered major injuries, but they have also shown immense bravery. Indeed, two women who are probably about half my height have managed to win Military Crosses in the past three years in looking after people for whom they were responsible. We should feel a huge debt of gratitude and pride in them all for that. We also have an amazing centre of skill at Birmingham and at Headley Court in terms of people recovering. Will the Minister tell us what will happen if Scotland separates? Bearing in mind the complexity of how this works, it will be extremely difficult. How will that work out?

[Lord Astor of Hever]

My Lords, I agree with the noble Lord in the first part of his question. I have seen a number of these reservists and regulars several times in the hospital at Camp Bastion. I am in awe of what they do and the lives they save—it is amazing work. In answer to the noble Lord’s second question, we do not envisage that this is going to happen.