Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to improve the medical capacity of the armed forces.

The Strategic Defence Review recognises rebuilding medical capacity and capability within Defence is critical to ensure our Armed Forces remain fighting fit in peacetime and are prepared to meet operational demands when at war.

Defence Medical Services (DMS) is working with the NHS to understand and improve system-wide capacity and capability. This work has included a series of exercises to explore the UK’s ability to deal with casualties across a range of scenarios up to and including warfighting. The DMS and NHS are also engaged in work to restore deployability for service personnel. The Department ensures military medics maintain the skills they require to support military operations across the globe with over 1000 military Doctors, Nurses and Allied Health Professionals based in 56 NHS trusts across the UK.

Further, working with allies, through the NATO Medical Action Plan, the Department is focused on addressing priority challenges in workforce; mass casualty planning; patient evacuation; and medical logistics to improve the medical capacity of the Armed Forces.