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Armed Forces Personnel

If the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, I want to make progress. We have considered Selly Oak several times. It is clear to everyone who has been to that hospital, including Opposition Members and other colleagues, that it provides tremendous treatment. There have been massive improvements in welfare support, through the provision of welfare officers, psychiatric nurses, liaison officers and so on. A partition is now being built further to help us group our wounded service personnel together. There is a link to Headley Court, which has a tremendous record. I was there again yesterday and it is a world-class facility. Some of the press speculation and stories have been deeply damaging to the morale of our NHS nurses and their colleagues, who have been tremendous. They are part of the reason why so many of our service personnel have lived and recovered better than expected, and they work closely with our military medical personnel. I wanted to put it on record that they do a tremendous job. Press attacks on Selly Oak have not helped them and we should acknowledge their work. I was disappointed with the comments of the hon. Member for Forest of Dean about the military ward. I was trying to clarify that we have an opportunity through the new private finance initiative hospital in Birmingham to develop a military ward. However, it is important to understand what that will be. Of course, if a major crash or incident occurs and beds are available, we would use them. However, we must be clear about when we would allow civilians in there. For example, if there are 32 beds, 15 of which are empty and the hospital needs more beds, are we to say that they cannot be used unless a major incident occurs, and that they must remain empty? What if an 86-year-old Normandy veteran needed treatment? Ministers will make the decisions and we always listen to the views of the chiefs of staff on such matters. Let me deal with mental health, about which there has been some misunderstanding today. There is significant support pre and post-deployment for serving personnel, and advice for their families. Treatment and care are available on operations and when personnel return to the UK. Psychiatric support is clearly provided. I have heard nothing to suggest that that provision is not working well or that it has not been there when people have needed it. The position of reservists in the context of mental health was raised previously. That is why we decided, as a result of report produced by King’s college, to provide the reservists’ mental health scheme. Reservists now have a mental health assessment programme and treatment available to them. That is a new development from last year. As far as I know, the reservists and their families have welcomed it. It is an important step forward. I recently announced an extension of the medical assessment programme for veterans at St. Thomas’s hospital. This goes back to 1982 and includes the Falklands veterans. Again, an additional service is now available that was not available before, and it will be up and running in the near future. I think that that is once again a major step forward. Many hon. Members have discussed the NHS and how we should link into it. We are currently working to develop a number of pilots whereby the NHS, Combat Stress and the Government will work together to provide centres of excellence around the country. We will provide the expertise and training so that NHS clinicians are better able to understand and treat those who come into the system with mental illness as a result of their service. Once again, that is a major step forward. Of course Combat Stress does a brilliant job, as do service charities generally, whether it be the British Legion, SSAFA—Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association—or others. They do a fantastic job for our service personnel and veterans. I can give hon. Members an assurance that Combat Stress will get a significant increase in funding this year. We will continue to work closely with the organisation and involve it in our discussions with the NHS about the pilot schemes. I can also assure the House that we talk regularly to our NHS colleagues and that I have had meetings with the Secretary of State and other Health Ministers about how best to link in and support veterans. I wanted to give the House that assurance. On the issue of priority treatment, I will write to the hon. Member for Forest of Dean. We deal with people in the NHS and ask them to ensure that the information is sent out to clinicians and GPs about getting priority treatment for these troops. We will continue to do so. On the tracking system in respect of the welfare of the more seriously wounded, I know that hon. Members are very concerned about the whole-life approach. We are developing a tracking system and we will involve case workers in the Veterans Agency and elsewhere to support and keep track of the more seriously wounded and the people who are most vulnerable. That will be rolling out soon and it will be another important move forward in our support for our wonderful veterans. As a result of the welfare conference with the single services and the service charities, we continue to look for ways to improve the welfare package generally and to support our armed forces personnel and our veterans.