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Armed Forces Personnel

In a real emergency, it would obviously be up to the managers of the hospital to consider the situation in terms of the overall well-being of patients. We are saying that there is a difference between what the Government are suggesting—a military-managed unit—and what we want, which is that normally such a unit would be exclusively for military personnel. It is difficult for us to predict what might happen in exceptional circumstances, but it is clear that the Government are proposing a unit that has a mix of patients and is managed by the military. The Opposition want a unit that is exclusively for military patients. That distinction is important because there has been confusion between what the chiefs of staff have said and what the Prime Minister said in the House.