Selly Oak hospital praised as Brown increases troop numbers in Afghanistan
Oct 15 2009 by Jonathan Walker, Birmingham Post
Gordon Brown and David Cameron united to praise the care provided to British troops at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham, as the Prime Minister announced plans to send an extra 500 troops to Afghanistan.
Mr Brown told MPs he had agreed “in principle” to increase British troop numbers in Afghanistan to 9,500.
But the deployment depended on three conditions being met, he said. First, an Afghan government commitment to put forward sufficient new troops to be trained; second, that all units could be properly equipped for the task; and third that the increase was part of a coalition-wide deployment with each ally bearing its “fair share”.
He made the announcement in a statement to the Commons after he and Conservative leader David Cameron had debated the care provided to British personnel returning to the UK.
Mr Cameron called for more support to help armed forces personnel deal with the long-term effects of combat, including better mental health facilities.
But he praised the “remarkable” treatment at Selly Oak, which treats personnel returning from Afghanistan, and at Headley Court in Surrey, which provides rehabilitative care, such as physiotherapy.
Mr Cameron told MPs: “What we do there is remarkable, there’s no doubt about that, and because of the advances in battlefield medicine, many people who previously would have died of their wounds are surviving, though they have to live with those injuries for the rest of their lives.”
Mr Brown said: “At Selly Oak, which I have also visited recently, I know the care that goes into helping people who are injured, many with very severe injuries indeed.”
The Prime Minister told MPs he regularly questioned whether sending British Armed Forces to fight on the other side of the world could be justified.
He said: “I have to conclude that when the safety of our country is at stake, we cannot and will not walk away.”
The troop increase would help support the strategy of strengthening Afghanistan’s army and police, and would reduce the risk to British service personnel.
“The more the Afghans can take responsibility for security, the less our coalition forces will be needed in the long term, and the sooner our troops will come home,” he said.
He had discussed the strategy with international leaders and military commanders over recent weeks, and said Britain supported US General Stanley McChrystal’s ambition to build the Afghan army to 134,000 by next year.
Mr Brown also said three-quarters of the most serious terror plots against the UK had “roots” in the border and mountain areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
He stressed the need to build up democracy in the two countries.
