More than 13,000 members of the British armed forces cannot be deployed because they’re “not medically deployable,” a UK defence minister said Monday.
Defence minister Al Carns said in response to a written parliamentary question that 13,522 are not able to be deployed due to medical conditions across the army, navy, and air force, while 14,350 are regarded as of limited deployability and approximately 99,560 are medically fit.
However, the ex-defence minister weighed in.
“I’ll bet you that a big chunk of the non-deployable, medically downgraded people are downgraded for dental reasons,” James Heappey, who served as armed forces minister under three Conservative prime ministers, told Times Radio.
“And what that tends to mean is that they’ve not had a dental check-up in the last six months, and so they are automatically declared dentally unfit, and therefore not fully deployable.”
Heappey’s statement was widely reported by the British media.
According to Forces News, personnel who are deemed “medically non-deployable” can still participate in UK-based exercises and can work for at least 32.5 hours per week. However, many of the thousands of personnel who are medically downgraded each year must go on and be fully recovered to be certified fully fit for duty again.
