By Lt Gen Louis Lillywhite, Surgeon General, Ministry of Defence

The idea that the medical care for our Armed Forces would somehow be better if we created a dedicated military hospital in the UK is just plain wrong. I am absolutely clear that it is no longer clinically viable to maintain such a facility. Simply put, the NHS is the best place to treat our injured Service personnel and to train our military consultants, doctors and nurses.

Our commitment to providing the best medical support for our Servicemen and women begins with the skills of the Defence Medical Services personnel who deploy on operations, who provide world-class medical treatment and care to injured personnel on the front line. And to do so, they need to have the best possible clinical training.

Rear Admiral A.M. Hussain to be Capability Manager (Precision Attack), effective from May 2009, in succession to Rear Admiral P. Lambert.
Rear Admiral C.A. Snow CBE to be Flag Officer Sea Training from February 19 2009.
Rear Admiral R.T. Love OBE, currently Director General Ships, will also assume the role of Chief Naval Engineering Officer from November 18 2008.
Rear Admiral P.A. Jones to be Commander UK Maritime Forces from September 22 2008.

Detailed career tracking at one star level and above within the U K Armed Forces is carried out by Bergmans Defence Consultancy (tracking@north-house.com)

While UK MP Kevan Jones rails about entertainment carried out by senior UK army personnel with the help of enlisted staff, in the US the scandal is money diverted from the Global War on Terrorism by the U S Air Force to leather bound home away from home "comfort capsules" to be installed in transport aircraft. Read the Washington Post story at

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/17/AR2008071703161.html?referrer=emaila

For a full list of the 2008 Birthday Honours click here

CBE
Charles Stuart Bell, Chief Executive, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, services to healthcare. Babcock Marine.
Archibald Anderson Bethel formerly chairman, Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire, services to business and to economic development in Lanarkshire.

Guy Rhodri Griffiths managing director, BAE Systems Integrated Technologies, services to the defence industry
Antony Hales chairman, Navy Army and Air Force Institutes, services to the Armed Forces
Brian Magenis senior civil servant, Ministry of Defence, public and voluntary service
Francis John Sheehan chief fire officer, West Midlands fire and rescue service, services to local government

By Dr Jeffrey Bradford

Today saw the release of The Ministry of Defence (MoD) Defence Plan including the Government's expenditure plan for 2008-2012 (Cm 7385). The document reflects the outcome of the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review where all Government departments make their bid for resources based on needs and performance. A senior group of Ministers arbitrate over these competing demands to determine ultimately who gets what. For the Ministry of Defence, there are a number of interesting nuances in the Defence Plan which illustrate the evolving defence priorities of the Brown adminstration:

Defence Policy (Pages 18-19)
* The Defence Plan suggests a much greater focus on Africa, no reference to America's Global War on Terror (GWOT) and in terms of current commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan "Support work to deliver a downtrend in the number of conflicts globally"

By a special correspondent

The military covenant was a very new phenomenon, the Defence Select Committee were told today.

Order of Bath (KCB)

Alexander Jeffrey permanent secretary, Ministry of Defence

Order of Bath (CB)

Nicholas John Bennett director-general of strategic technologies, Ministry of Defence

Order of the British Empire (CBE)

Julian Graham Birt senior landing site officer, the Queen's Helicopter Flight
Murray Simpson Easton managing director, submarine solutions, BAE Systems, services to the maritime industry
Alan Douglas Garwood lately head of Defence Export Services, Ministry of Defence

It should have been a good news story, for which the MoD is usually desperate.

Tucked away in the Defence Contracts Bulletin daily alert was an announcement that SGS UK Ltd at Camberley in Surrey had won an £83,000 contact from Central TLB in Glasgow for the verification of MoD sites under the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme.
Green, small contract being placed direct, good news all round.

As the world rushed to the aid of earthquake stricken Haiti and large numbers of American ships gatehred offshore, there was a notable absentee.

Where was the Royal Navy?