UK-Defence
Britain's armed forces rehabilitation centre is to get an extra Pnds 24 million (Dlrs 48 m) to improve facilities for injured servicemen and women, Defence Secretary Des Browne announced Tuesday.
The investment at the Headley Court centre in Surrey, south east England, comes after the UK government has been criticized for not doing more for the welfare of troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A total of 346 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have been categorized as very serious or seriously injured up until the end of March this year, according to official figures excluding fatalities.
Just over 4,000 have been admitted to field hospitals, including 659 wounded on action. More than 2,600 have been aeromedically evacuated from both war theatres.
Visiting the rehabilitation centre, Browne said he would like to pay tribute to the "remarkable charitable work conducted to honour the bravery and professionalism of our armed forces."
"I am always overwhelmed and humbled by the bravery and courage of the troops I meet here, some of whom are overcoming complex and devastating injuries," he said.
The extra funding is to help build an accommodation block, a bigger prosthetic limb workshop and a neurological lab at the centre, which looks after 180 patients, who were injured in conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Over the past three years, the Defence Medical Services Rehabilitation Centre, near Leatherhead, south of London, has also increased the number of beds available for "complex trauma" patients from 18 to 66.
But Diane Dernie, whose son Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson was severely wounded in Afghanistan, told the BBC that the decision to award funding now was an example of Britain's "woeful state of unpreparedness" for the consequences of going to war.
"While Headley Court is punching way above its weight - it's achieving miracles - this award is now the government playing catch- up and trying to provide the facilities that should have been there before we embarked on this course of action," Dernie said.
