Care failures ‘cause veteran deaths’

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Four nights’ dinner, bed and Scottish breakfast accommodation, return flights and transfers VETERANS have died due to failures in their care after leaving the Forces, a Tory MP claimed yesterday.

Johnny Mercer, who served as an officer on three tours of Afghanistan, said that what veterans need is not sympathy but “someone who cares”.

Last month the all-party Defence Committee heard that at least 61 veterans have killed themselves so far this year as the legacy of past campaigns take their toll. The victims include five members of the same platoon who took their own lives in just three months.

It was also told that veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder can have to wait a year to get seen by experts.

Mr Mercer yesterday appeared as a witness before the Defence Committee on which he normally sits and said: “People have died who should not have died if the support was as accessible as it has been portrayed.”

Tory MP Mark Francois told NHS minister Jackie Doyle-Price that treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder is a “postcode lottery”.

He told her: “Your department is not honouring the Military Covenant.”