An estimated 5,000 injured troops are being prevented from joining front-line operations because they are languishing on health service waiting lists. Military doctors have told The Daily Telegraph of the "absolute scandal" of soldiers having to wait for treatment while a fully equipped military hospital lies virtually empty.The substantial number of troops classed as P7R – temporarily injured and not fit for active service – has emerged as the Army struggles to fill the gaps on the front lines in Afghanistan and Iraq. If they were treated more quickly, they could return to action to help colleagues stretched by five years of fighting terrorism. While the military medical services are facing substantial difficulties, it has emerged that the Royal Hospital Haslar, at Gosport, Hants, which is due to become a civilian hospital next March, is vastly under-used.
Dr Peter Golding, a consultant physician there, said he was being sent two or three referrals a week, some travelling from Scotland and Germany, because their local hospitals "could not cope". "It is an absolute scandal that the military do not get the preferential treatment they need," he said. "What is more ridiculous is that more soldiers are getting injured on operations and they are being sent all over the place, whereas they should be in one secure wing."
The Daily Telegraph reported this week that a wounded paratrooper being treated at the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, at Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham, had been harangued by a Muslim visitor after being placed in a public ward. It can also be disclosed that injured SAS soldiers have been treated at Selly Oak, which will increase security worries.
After initial treatment at Selly Oak, troops are sent to their local hospitals and GPs and have to take their place in NHS queues.
Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary, told the Conservative Party conference yesterday: "To have our troops return home wounded and put them in civilian wards is simply unacceptable."
Dr Golding, a former Royal Navy doctor, said that 70 disillusioned military consultants had left the Services in the past five years. "What we are seeing is that a large number of Servicemen cannot be deployed on operations because of their injuries. But here at Haslar we have a fantastic set-up which is being ignored and is closing.
"There is no reason for P7R troops not to be taken through Haslar but the military has set its heart on Selly Oak."
The Ministry of Defence has admitted that it has no precise figures on troops' injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan before this year, beyond recording 6,600 casualties in Iraq between 2003 and last year. More detailed statistics have been published since January after media pressure.
Haslar hospital, which has perimeter fencing, security lighting and MoD guards, can hold up to 350 beds, including eight intensive care units and four high-dependency units. It also has a pool to help rehabilitate troops who have had limbs amputated. Its orthopaedic department is described as outstanding. Unlike Selly Oak, which has recorded the highest rates of the superbug MRSA, it is one of the cleanest in the country.
Haslar, which handles some civilian patients, will be handed over to the Portsmouth health trust in March while the city waits for its delayed £200 million new hospital to be built in 2010.
The MoD said Selly Oak's "excellent health care" and training opportunities could not be met at Haslar and it was working to introduce military-only wards. "Security of our personnel is paramount and the appropriate level of security is in place at Selly Oak," it said.