Greater than 13,000 members of the British armed forces can’t be deployed as a result of they’re “not medically deployable,” a UK defence minister mentioned Monday.
Defence minister Al Carns mentioned in response to a written parliamentary query that 13,522 will not be in a position to be deployed because of medical circumstances throughout the military, navy, and air power, whereas 14,350 are considered of restricted deployability and roughly 99,560 are medically match.
Nevertheless, the ex-defence minister weighed in.
“I’ll wager you {that a} massive chunk of the non-deployable, medically downgraded persons are downgraded for dental causes,” James Heappey, who served as armed forces minister below three Conservative prime ministers, advised Occasions Radio.
“And what that tends to imply is that they’ve not had a dental check-up within the final six months, and so they’re robotically declared dentally unfit, and due to this fact not absolutely deployable.”
Heappey’s assertion was broadly reported by the British media.
In line with Forces Information, personnel who’re deemed “medically non-deployable” can nonetheless take part in UK-based workouts and might work for at the least 32.5 hours per week. Nevertheless, lots of the hundreds of personnel who’re medically downgraded every year should go on and be absolutely recovered to be licensed absolutely match for obligation once more.
