Dr. ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement on the arrangement for joint civil/military medical planning in England and Wales; if he will describe liaison arrangements for such planning as it is related to agreements with(a) NATO and (b) the United States of America; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. Currie[holding answer 14 December 1987]: Joint civil/military medical planning has been a feature of Department of Health and Social Security and National Health Service civil defence policy and planning for a number of years. Government Departments regularly consider the problems which would arise if casualties of war—British, United States or of other NATO nations—were evacuated to the United Kingdom in wartime. NHS health emergency planning officers (HEPOs) liaise with the Department, the Welsh Office and with the military on civil defence matters of joint interest. Seminars were arranged in 1986 and 1987 at the Civil Defence college to enable HEPOs and military medical planners to be briefed by central Government Departments on joint medical planning matters.