Peter
Viggers, Member of Parliament for Gosport, put down a Question
about the Royal College of Defence Medicine. The Minister
has now replied and a copy is attached.
Peter
Viggers said today:
“As
so often with this Government the answer is evasive. The
truth of the situation is that the Ministry of Defence
planned to develop the Selly Oak site
as a new Royal College of Defence Medicine at a cost of £200 million.
This plan has now been scrapped and the Ministry of Defence is casting around
trying
to find where to accommodate the 2,000 people who are planned to be in the
area. At present Defence staff are housed around Birmingham in a wide range
of lodgings
in one’s and two’s. Some use a former YWCA hostel and some are
in a former hostel for the homeless. The plan to develop an exciting new
Centre
for Defence Medicine has completely collapsed.
This
is an abominable way to treat our service personnel. I
fear that the crisis in Defence Medicine will
become still deeper.
I
am planning to raise this issue with the Secretary of State
today when he appears before the Select Committee
on Defence.”
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