Gulf War Veterans: Illnesses (Hansard, 16 December 1998)

§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Gilbert)
My Lords, physicians participating in the MoD's medical assessment programme seek to make a diagnosis for all patients who present themselves with illnesses. A proportion of the patients can, however, be given only a symptomatic diagnosis. I expect detailed information about the diagnoses given to the first 1,000 patients in this programme, and also the initial results from an important study by Professor Wessely into the health of UK Gulf veterans, to be available early next year.

§ Lord Morris of Manchester
My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for his reply. Can we be assured that, in cases of doubt involving undiagnosed illnesses, claims can be decided in favour of Gulf War claimants irrespective of the War Pensions Agency's seven-year rule. Of the 400 veterans of whose deaths I was informed by my noble friend in a previous reply, do we know the causes of death and, more particularly, how many were suicides?

§ Lord Gilbert
My Lords, the answer to the first part of my noble friend's Question is that, as I understand it, the War Pensions Agency already applies to applications the benefit of doubt rule which was first introduced by my noble friend when he was Minister for War Pensions. As to the identification of the causes of death of the 400 Gulf War veterans, up to this time we do not have the information that my noble friend requests. I asked for the information today but it is not yet available.

§ Lord Ironside
My Lords, as the National Health Service is being saddled more and more with having to pick up the bill for the health care of Gulf War veterans, we find that the medical assessment programme can advise but not treat and that GPs can apparently treat but not refer locally because they are advised to refer back to the MoD. Does the noble Lord agree that this leaves a gap in NHS specialist treatment that should be plugged by designating informed specialists in the regions to whom GPs can refer sufferers—after all, there are only about 1,000—following the example of what 1342 the NHS has already done for the management of those who suffer injuries caused by radiotherapy for breast cancer?

§ Lord Gilbert
My Lords, I am not aware of any particular difficulties of the type that the noble Lord describes, nor am I aware of any restrictions on how general practitioners within the National Health Service make recommendations. It may be that advice is given to them. If the noble Lord is aware of any particular difficulties, I am very happy to look into them.

§ The Countess of Mar
My Lords, in light of the failure of the Government to carry out their promises set out in the paper New Beginning, which was published fairly early on in this Administration, and in light of the Persian Gulf War Veterans Act 1998 enacted in the United States of America, which contains the presumption of an association between illness and Gulf War service, will the Government, if by 19th November 1999 the US Government has listed all possible causes of Gulf War illness, carry out their promise to shadow in this country what happens in the United States and make the presumption that these men are ill because of their service in the Gulf?

§ Lord Gilbert
My Lords, I am very happy to give the noble Countess the assurance that already Her Majesty's Government shadow everything that takes place in the United States. She refers to a recent piece of legislation enacted by the US Congress. I am informed that the US Congress has recently enacted two pieces of legislation in this field, one of which on its face appears to contradict the other in certain respects, and that the matter is being resolved by the US Justice Department.
The noble Countess alleges that Her Majesty's Government have failed to live up to their promises in the document published shortly after they came into office. I shall be delighted to know if she can point to any particular cases in which that has occurred. We are in the process of spending about £6.7 million on research in four different studies. Further, we have drastically reduced the waiting list for people who seek assessment from about 350 when we came into office to the present figure of about 60. We constantly trawl all the literature to make sure that we are completely up to date with developments on both sides of the Atlantic.

§ Lord Burnham
My Lords, how many Gulf War veterans or their next of kin receive pensions and other similar payments as a result of that service?

§ Lord Gilbert
My Lords, rather than guess at the figures that the noble Lord seeks, I shall write to him and give him the information. I recently answered a Question put by the noble Baroness, Lady Strange, about widows. The number of successful applications for war widow's pension as a result of the Gulf War is in single figures.

Lord Bruce of Donington
My Lords, my noble friend Lord Morris asked the Government specifically 1343 how many servicemen and women who served in the Gulf War had illnesses awaiting diagnosis. Can the noble Lord give the answer to that Question?

§ Lord Gilbert
My Lords, I believe that 63 are awaiting attendance at one of the medical centres.

§ Viscount Slim
My Lords, following the question of the noble Lord, Lord Bruce of Donington, can the Minister tell me what experience our general practitioners have—splendid and excellent though they are—of this disease? When they refer a case to the Ministry of Defence, what advice can the department give? So far we have not found the cause of the problem.

§ Lord Gilbert
My Lords, the noble Viscount is right, although in one sense he prejudges the answer to his own question by referring to "this disease". That is part of the problem. We do not know what has caused the collection of symptoms. That is why we are financing no fewer than four studies: two epidemiological studies, one interactive study to see whether the symptoms were produced by the combination of vaccines that the troops took, and a neuromuscular study.