New army hospital plans unveiled...

Defence Under Secretary Dereck Twigg is getting ready to unveil plans for a new military hospital ward for injured soldiers. If the plans are to go ahead, the Birmingham New Hospital, part of the University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, which manages the city's Selly Oak Hospital where the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine (RCDM) is based, will have a special soldiers-only ward that offers first class medical treatment provided by both military and regular NHS personnel.

The move, hailed for the "outstanding facilities" that will be available to military patients, can perhaps expected to be the first of many similar moves throughout the country, all of which will fit in nicely with the Government's drive to make life in the military seem more appealing to would-be soldiers.