Charles visits war wounded

Oct 4 2006 By Alison Dayani, Birmingham Mail

MILITARY medics at a Birmingham hospital which came under fire for its treatment of soldiers answered their critics during a visit by Prince Charles.

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall toured the Royal Centre of Defence Medicine, at Selly Oak Hospital, days after it was criticised for treating troops on general NHS wards.

But Wing Commander Ian Sargeant, trauma and orthopaedics consultant, said yesterday that military patients at the hospital were receiving "better treatment than they ever have before".

"In the last four weeks we have had patients coming in from operations requiring a lot of care and this has happened without any impact on civilian patients being treated here," said Mr Sargeant.

Charles and Camilla met British service personnel injured in action in Afghanistan and Iraq along with medical staff. The Prince also chatted to 11 injured service personnel on a trauma ward.

Earlier this week, a soldier treated on a general NHS ward claimed he had felt threatened by a visitor who was against the war in Iraq.

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