(Original copy) British field hospitals are so short staffed that they would not be able to cope with a sustained military campaign in Iraq, a senior army doctor warned yesterday. Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Beaton, senior medical officer for the British battle group camped in the northern Kuwaiti desert, said the limited resources would be overwhelmed by any campaign lasting longer than six months. And he admitted that they had no chance of coping with the number of casualties from both sides which could be expected in the opening days of the campaign. “We have got enough doctors and medics for the operation in hand but not enough to sustain an operation. If that happens we are going to struggle,” he said. He blamed army cuts for the dramatic reduction in the number of doctors, nurses and medics available for service in the Gulf. The number of surgeons and anaesthetists available to the army is running at just 20 per cent of establishment and GPs at just 40 per cent. Twenty years ago Britain maintained 20 military hospitals but there are none now. Even the Czech army has four. But Lieutenant Colonel Beaton insisted the British troops would receive the best care his staff could provide and he stressed that there were enough staff to handle the operation that was already planned against Iraq. “There will always be times when our medical resources are overwhelmed. What we have to have is an ability to respond with a plan that’s been thought through well.” The medical team attached to the battle group has three doctors and 20 medics but no nurses, although there should be two nurses on the staff. The number of casualties requiring medical attention could be swelled dramatically if there is a flood of prisoners of war and refugees. Up to a quarter of a million refugees could flood across the Kuwaiti border once a military campaign begins, creating a logistical and humanitarian nightmare for military planners trying to move them away from the fighting and to provide them with food and shelter. Lieutenant Colonel Beaton said the number of injured Iraqi soldiers and refugees could overwhelm the limited medical resources at his disposal. “We have to respond to prisoners of war within our capability but we are not configured to deal with refugees. “If our generals have come up with a good plan there will be a lot of their casualties and if it’s a bad plan there will be lots of ours.” Both Britain and the US are hoping to avoid large scale casualties by convincing Iraqi troops to surrender rather than fight. But Lieutenant Colonel Beaton said in the early days of the campaign, as in any military action, there were expected to be too many casualties for the resources to hand. “We would not be able to cope – I have no expectation of being able to look after those numbers in the first instance. It’s going to be very harrowing.” And he launched a scathing attack on the policy of closing military hospitals. Many soldiers, particularly officers, are now taking out private health care insurance because they are worried that by having to wait for NHS treatment they could set back their military careers. “We are not following through the continuity of care that the soldier deserves,” he said. “In the past when we had large numbers of casualties one of the central parts of the healing was that they were treated together with their mates and were able to mull over what had happened in a military environment where people understood what happened. “What happens now is that people get flown home on an individual basis and farmed out to wherever the NHS has a bed. “You get traumatised soldiers with one old boy with a hip replacement on one side and a stroke victim on the other.” And he said if Britain intended to take part in future operations of the type about to be launched against Iraq it needed to review the way it worked. “If you look at any other country that is serious about expeditionary warfare their system is underpinned by a series of military hospitals.” Throughout Kuwait yesterday military commanders were putting the finishing touches to their battle plans and troops continued their preparations for the move forward to positions from which they could launch an invasion of Iraq.