With the growing numbers of wounded armed forces personnel repatriated to the UK, and given the continued growth in medically discharged veterans since the Falklands War right up to current conflicts and operations, independent security consultant Geoff Whitfield – former head of R&D security at GSK – has urged the Government to afford our servicemen and women the “best medical care possible”.
Whitfield – one of the founding members of The Security Institute and a member of Security Management Today’s Editorial Advisory Board – told info4 security: “The existing facilities are falling short. The National Health Service simply isn’t meeting the needs of veterans who still require treatment for their service-related conditions. A dedicated Military Veterans Hospital would greatly assist in resolving this national scandal. The complete closure of our military hospitals has proven to be a total folly.”
Whitfield’s understanding is that the Selly Oak Hospital is good but is “simply not able to deal with the numbers”.
Petition to 10 Downing Street
On the back of his comments, Whitfield is urging anyone who feels strongly about this issue to sign a petition demanding that the Government do something about this parlous situation (the link to the petition can be found on the right hand panel of this page).
“Time is short but it should still be possible to get some real numbers behind this petition. If any readers of info4security, SMT or Security Installer feel able to help please visit the link and add your name. Please pass the link on, too. Remember that road pricing was halted because millions of people signed a similar petition to 10 Downing Street. Maybe we can have the same collective effect and help our friends in the military.”
To date, nearly 14,000 people have signed up (including SMT’s Editor Brian Sims).
Downing Street has set a time limit of 19 August for signatories to add their name.
