Doctors today condemned equipment shortages among medics deployed in Iraq and other war zones. The British Medical Association’s annual conference was told that doctors were being prevented from speaking out about their experiences on the frontline. But delegates heard that they had returned from abroad “shocked and angered” by the situation they had been forced to work in.
Kate Adams, a GP from east London, said that doctors called up from the Territorial Army had reported a shortage of chemical protection suits at a time when it was believed Iraq had chemical weapons. John Ferguson, chairman of the BMA’s armed forces committee, also said troops even lacked the batteries they needed to operate machines to detect poisonous gases.
And Dr Adams highlighted the case of a British soldier who had to have his leg amputated or face bleeding to death because the doctors did not have a vascular surgery kit. “A lot of these doctors who have returned from Iraq have been forbidden from speaking out, they cannot go public. “It’s really for the BMA to speak out on their behalf.
“I think it was actually a scandal the difficult conditions these doctors faced on the ground in Iraq.
“There were reports coming back that they didn’t have basic protection equipment. “That wasn’t just the doctors, that was across the board and they had a shortage of supplies so the frontline infantry were given them (flak jackets). “Doctors weren’t part of the infantry but they were with frontline troops, but they didn’t have basic protection equipment.
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3140833
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