Wounded British troops wait hours to reach hospital

Source: AFP

LONDON (AFP) - A senior British Army surgeon said troops injured in the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan faced delays of several hours before being transported to field hospitals, newspapers reported Sunday.

American troops fighting in the Vietnam War 40-odd years ago were treated far more quickly than British soldiers nowadays, The Sunday Telegraph and the Sunday Mirror reported Lieutenant Colonel Paul Parker as saying.

Parker cited a lack of dedicated helicopter ambulances and too many layers of decision-making for the delays which meant that it could take several hours to transport casualties even short distances to a field hospital.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) insisted that military medics had the resources needed and that Vietnam comparisons were misleading due to advances in military capabilities.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070617/wl_uk_afp/britainmilitaryhealth

"The Ministry of Defence (MoD) insisted that military medics had the resources needed and that Vietnam comparisons were misleading due to advances in military capabilities."

Advances in top down incompetence and double talk PR?

I bet the Aussies don't have the same problem.

Need more time for the situation to be micromanaged so everyone's cover story matches up.

http://www.worldwar1.com/sfsomme.htm

This sunny morning on the Somme was the worst moment in British history. Brigade after brigade was ground to a bloody pulp. Whole units of 'Pals' died, together in the end. German machine guns grew red hot. British shells fell short among advancing Imperial troops. The slaughter continued into the evening.

A few heroic British units managed to reach the enemy's trenches and storm the concrete blockhouses and fortified villages defending German lines. But the redoubtable Germans launched fierce, co-ordinated counter-attacks that drove the British back.

On the first day of the Somme, the British lost 19,240 dead, 35,494 seriously wounded, and 2,152 missing: 57,470 casualties in total. The Ulster Division, which assailed the heavily fortified German right, alone lost 5,600 men that day, most before noon.