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An initiative has been launched to speed up the treatment of wounded soldiers to boost the number of troops able to be deployed to Afghanistan.
In a £70 million scheme, four recovery centres will be built at which sick and injured personnel can be treated as day patients or boarders. Two are likely to be based in Colchester and Tidworth, Hampshire, near or in garrisons.
The centres, to be built by the Help for Heroes charity and run by The Royal British Legion and Army, follow experience that injured soldiers recover better when treated in a military environment.
In addition, 12 “personnel recovery units” will be established, with occupational therapists and welfare staff to help soldiers return to duty or leave the Army.
At present, the total number of personnel remains fixed at 102,000. Figures obtained by the Conservatives last month suggested that 5,000 soldiers, or 20 per cent of the infantry, were unable to fight because of illness, injury, lack of fitness or other non-medical reasons.
Between January and the end of last November, more than 150 troops were flown from Afghanistan to Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham, for treatment to wounds — two-and-a-half times the rate of the previous two years, according to Ministry of Defence figures.
The funeral of a teenage soldier from Folkestone, Kent, was held today. Rifleman Peter Aldridge, 19, of A Company 4 Rifles, died in an explosion on foot patrol in Helmand province on 22 January on his first tour of duty.
He was the 250th British members of the services to die in Afghanistan. His last words to the medic were to “tell his mother that he loved her”, his commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Jones said.
