Following the publication of the Defence Investment Plan (DIP), Defence Medical Command (DMedC) is working with the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) to establish a ten-year physical infrastructure plan for Defence medical.

The ten-year physical infrastructure plan will be a new planning tool focused specifically on the estate required to deliver Defence Medical Command (DMedC) clinical effect.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has allocated up to £50M through the Defence Investment Plan over four years, focused on delivering priority medical capability enhancements:

• Tactical Combat Casualty Care. £20m in kits for combat personnel based on the latest research on equipment to save lives on the battlefield.
• Forward Blood Products: £10m to develop or procure dried blood products.
• Tranexamic Acid (TXA): £10m to provide a more effective way to combat blood loss and save lives.
• Field Hospital Equipment: £10m to support combat operations at scale.

Contingency plans for maintaining the supply of medical products are under ongoing review by the Cabinet Office through their National Capabilities Assessment. This tests the Government’s response to scenarios on the National Risk Register, including disruption to medical supply chains; increasing resilience of UK medicines supply chains remains a priority for the Government.

The UK is also working with allies, through the NATO Medical Action Plan to address priority challenges including medical logistics, recognising the need to diversify suppliers, improve inventory resilience, and ensure critical materials are available when and where they are needed.

It is MOD policy not to comment on Counter-Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear capabilities. Disclosure of such detail could undermine operational and national security.

Defence Medical Services has transitioned to a Lead Command model under Cyber and Specialist Operations Command (CSOC), marking Initial Operating Capability (IOC) and a significant milestone in how Defence medical capability is led and delivered across Defence.

As part of this change, Headquarters Defence Medical Services has become Defence Medical Command (DMedC), and the role of Director General Defence Medical Services has been restyled as Chief of Defence Medical (CDMed).

Under these arrangements, Defence Medical Command will be empowered to make decisions that ensure delivery of integrated healthcare services and medical support, aligned across Defence, with Allies and with the NHS, that is prioritised and cohered to meet Defence needs.

The Surgeon General formally agreed the NATO Medical Action Plan on behalf of UK Defence in January 2025. The NATO Medical Action Plan is a strategic initiative to enhance medical readiness and interoperability for collective defence and focuses on improving regulatory alignment, addressing healthcare workforce shortages, enhancing integrated mass casualty planning, streamlining patient evacuation, and strengthening medical logistics.

Defence Medical Command, previously Headquarters Defence Medical Services, has established Programme GRIFFIN to lead on the UK military contribution to the NATO Medical Action Plan.

Programme GRIFFIN has completed a baseline assessment to identify work across Defence which supports delivery of the NATO Medical Action Plan. This has identified activity in all five themes as set out in the NATO Medical Action Plan and the assessment provides the basis for cohering and prioritising activity.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is embedded as a standing member of the Programme GRIFFIN Board to ensure military and civilian joint working. Further, MOD is engaged in the work lead by DHSC on the civilian contribution to the prioritised Critical Medical Initiatives in NATO Medical Action Plan.

The Strategic Defence Review recognised the need to rebuild both medical capacity and capability within Defence to ensure our Armed Forces remain fighting fit in peacetime and are prepared to meet operational demands when at war. Future workforce requirements will be informed by ongoing Defence workforce planning.

On returning medically non-deployable personnel to fighting fitness, a number of initiatives have been introduced, including new clinical pathways, to expedite healthcare for Armed Forces personnel.

Following successful pilots, the Chief of Air Staff’s Fighting Fit Fund and the 1^st Sea Lord’s Fighting Fit Fund will expedite secondary healthcare for RAF and Navy personnel with private healthcare providers. A Chief of the General Staff’s Fighting Fit Fund for Army personnel is being progressed.

Further, the Department is working closely with the NHS to address some of the longest wait times. The NHS Further Faster Armed Forces programme has focused on meeting the 18-week target waiting times for Ear Nose and Throat, and Trauma and Orthopaedic appointments for Armed Forces personnel. The Royal Centre of Defence Medicine, based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham is undertaking increased numbers of Orthopaedic or General Surgery procedures through the Military Theatre List.

All Defence GPs have been updated to ensure awareness of the referral pathways available to expedite the treatment of their patients, – and ultimately return our personnel to fighting fitness.

As outlined in the Strategic Defence Review (SDR), it is critical the national health ecosystem—Defence, the NHS and the private sector—has the capacity and capability to meet the Nation's needs in peacetime and during conflict. There is significant ongoing work between the Ministry of Defence (MOD), the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the NHS to review system-wide capacity to ensure the UK can respond collectively to meet the demands of warfighting and other strategic health emergencies.

Over the past year, a series of joint wargame exercises have been held involving the MOD, DHSC, NHS England (NHSE), the Devolved Administrations, Voluntary Aid Societies and Allies to explore and expand the UK’s ability to deal with casualties across a range of scenarios up to and including warfighting; this is an ongoing dynamic & collaborative programme.

There has been specific focus on the role of the NHS in major conflict, including the potential clinical challenge to health services of modern conflict and how UK health services work collectively to respond to the challenge of conflict at scale.

The SDR recommendations and the creation of integrated crisis plans will continue to be progressed as part of the ongoing engagement between the MOD, DHSC and the NHS. Further, the work with allies through the NATO Medical Action Plan is addressing priority challenges in regulatory frameworks and legislation; workforce shortages; mass casualty planning; patient evacuation; and medical logistics.

Defence Medical Services (DMS) capabilities, across the Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force and Cyber and Specialist Operations Command, support Defence outputs across NATO Contribution, Crisis Response, Strategic Resilience and Global Competition.

The Strategic Defence Review recognised the need to rebuild both medical capacity and capability within Defence to ensure our Armed Forces remain fighting fit in peacetime and are prepared to meet operational demands when at war.

The immediate priority is to optimise existing capability to ensure that the DMS can reliably deliver the support Defence needs today.

The second priority is to modernise operational medical capability and the healthcare support to force generation to meet the demands of contemporary warfare and evolving clinical practice. To accelerate modernisation, Defence has allocated up to £50 million through the Defence Investment Plan over four years, focused on delivering priority capability enhancements:

• Tactical Combat Casualty Care. £20 million in kits for combat personnel based on the latest research on equipment to save lives on the battlefield.
• Forward Blood Products: £10 million to develop or procure dried blood products.
• Tranexamic Acid (TXA): £10 million to provide a more effective way to combat blood loss and save lives.
• Field Hospital Equipment: £10 million to support combat operations at scale.

The third priority is to prepare to expand medical capacity to deliver the Strategic Defence Review's vision of enhanced warfighting readiness.

Rebuilding defence medical capability will focus on the following functions:

1. Medically preparing the Integrated Force
2. Maximising deployable medical capability and capacity within available resources.
3. Managing scalable and adaptable Operational Patient Care Pathways from point of injury or illness to definitive care and rehabilitation in collaboration with allies and UK healthcare systems.
4. Building on our world class military medical research to adapt medical advances to gain operational advantage.

I refer the hon. member to the answer provided by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in January this year. https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2026-01-12/104605

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) and DHSC recognise that mefloquine is associated with neurological and psychiatric adverse effects. Defence Medical Command (DMedC) support an approach to healthcare in which treatment is directed towards the patient’s clinical diagnosis and presenting symptoms and managed in accordance with current evidence-based clinical practice and relevant national guidance. DMedC is not aware of evidence or national guidance that recommends withholding otherwise appropriate treatments where clinically indicated, solely on the basis of previous mefloquine exposure.

The MOD will continue to review emerging evidence, including systematic reviews, regulatory advice from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MRHA) and recommendations from expert bodies concerned with malaria prevention.

As outlined in the response by the former Minister for Health Innovation and Safety, NHS England is considering adding screening for prior mefloquine use and any associated adverse events to initial Op COURAGE and Op RESTORE assessments.

My hon. Friend makes a very important point. All armed forces personnel are supported by dedicated and comprehensive rehabilitation services. Allied health professionals play a crucial role in supporting the treatment and rehabilitation of armed forces personnel in the UK and on operations.

Many injured service personnel face prolonged recovery journeys, and access to specialist rehabilitation is crucial. How is the Department expanding the role of allied health professionals in the Defence Medical Services to strengthen rehabilitation and provide joined-up care from injury to recovery?

The sprint review is initiated and led by the Ministry of Defence, working with the Department of Health and Social Care and other Governmental and private organisations. A series of meetings are planned for late 2025 which will explore and progress the joint plans to meet the recommendations outlined in the Strategic Defence Review.

The Defence Medical Services and NHS have participated in a series of exercises to explore the UK’s ability to deal with various combat scenarios and the treatment of casualties in February and July 2025. Further exercises are planned for the end of November 2025 and in 2026. The health services for Devolved Administrations, NATO partners and voluntary sector organisations are engaged in this work.

The creation of integrated crisis plans are broader than health and will consider the recommendations identified in the NATO Medical Action Plan. These recommendations and the creation of integrated crisis plans will be discussed as part of the ongoing engagement between the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and the Ministry of Defence.

A series of joint wargame exercises have taken place that have been used to identify gaps in medical warfighting capabilities. These exercises continue to inform planning between the National Health Service and the Ministry of Defence to ensure both can respond to a wide range of warfighting scenarios that might affect health and patient care.

The Department of Health and Social Care and the NHS have actively worked alongside the Ministry of Defence to rebuild medical capabilities for warfighting through the introduction of the digital extraction of redacted patient notes from general practice surgeries. This has reduced the recruitment process significantly for medically trained warfighting personnel. Furthermore, the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS are also reviewing how military medical staff operate across the NHS in clinical placements.

Whilst there have been no recent formal discussions between my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Defence, there is a strong foundation of cross-Government working between Ministry of Defence and the Department of Health and Social Care.

The 10-Year Health Plan for England, which was published on 3 July 2025 by the Department of Health and Social Care, sets out a plan to create a new model of care fit for the future. The Strategic Defence Review recognises the interdependencies between the Defence Medical Services and the National Health Service and the need to continue to strengthen this partnership. Implementation of the review’s recommendations is underway.

A series of workshops, involving both the Ministry of Defence and the Department of Health and Social Care, are exploring the United Kingdom’s ability to deal with various combat scenarios and the treatment of casualties. The Ministry of Defence is also participating in the cross-Government Exercise PEGASUS, the national tier 1 pandemic preparedness exercise set to assess the UK’s ability to respond to a pandemic. Both activities focus on understanding system-wide capacity and capability, potential future need, and shared plans for delivery.

As outlined in the Strategic Defence Review, workforce shortages and the fragility of global supply chains are pressures for both Defence Medical Services and the National Health Service (NHS). The Ministry of Defence (MOD) regularly reviews its critical supply chains to identify and mitigate risks to defence capability.

Work is ongoing between the MOD and the NHS to understand system-wide capacity and capability, potential future need and shared plans for delivery to meet Defence medical needs. Increasing resilience of UK medicines supply chains remains a priority for the Government.