http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21555812

Good.

Still does not make up for all the P45's coming their way. Also if we have a government that truly supports its armed forces there should be no reason for such charities to exist.

If we lived in total LA LA land we wouldn't need charities either

Yes but many of these charities help maintain the ex servicemen health problems. This really should be part of the MOD remit, maybe by making them pay for all of the NHS costs that they incur.

That's a bit pointless though, it's one part of the government billing another part of the government. The only effect is to spend more money on administration shuffling the paperwork around. We'd be better off if we still had military hospitals that specialised in the kind of treatments injured soldiers need financed directly out of military budgets. But the last lot shut them all as a money saving measure in the process shifting treating wounded soldiers onto an NHS that had little previous experience of their treatment and rehabilitation requirements. It took relatively little time for even politicians to realise that was a massive mistake but by then it was too late, the army hospitals were shut and there was no money to reopen and re equip them all. They've managed to get one specialist unit at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham which is now the location of the Royal Center for Defense Medicine. However the loss of capacity to treat wounded soldiers will be felt for years to come.

Of course, it would help if the Westminster Village Idiots didn't send our troops off on ludicrous escapades like Afghanistan where hundreds of them get injured and maimed while the actual gain to the UK is minimal. But that's another issue..

I am not dogmatic about how it is done. If recreating military hospitals is the way to do it then fine. My idea of billing the MOD will also make them actually think about how to reduce casualties as well. In Afghanistan and Iraq the MOD bigwigs were too important to travel in the Land rovers but it was fine for the grunts. Hence the casualty levels. If they had long term costs to worry about then they might reconsider inadequately equipping our troops.