Recommendation 65

When we asked the Commander Strategic Command how he was working on alleviating shortfalls, he provided the following examples: Health • Increasing the level of medical stocks whilst working with the NHS to ensure rotation the stock from MOD shelves through the NHS in order to avoid wasting product by having it go out of date on the shelves.129 • Considering defence’s ability to deploy civilian medical staff (depending on the environment alongside the nature and level of threat) and working with NATO to understand where other nations might be able to provide capability.130 • Employing locums as surge capacity to resolve current domestic medical and dentistry capacity shortfalls.131 Digital • Exploring the potential for introducing bursaries for 16-year olds to encourage them to come into the service at 18 with an expectation that they will serve a shorter career than traditional. He told us that the “vision is that they will serve for seven years. We will give them an in-service degree. We expect many of them to leave in their mid-20s, hopefully then going out into the UK economy and 125 Q366 126 Q367 127 Ministry of Defence (CDS0001) 128 Ministry of Defence, Annual Report and Accounts 2022–23, HC 1468, July 2023, p 46 129 Q367 130 Q369 131 Q374 28 Ready for War? helping with the right skills, qualifications and approach to life to make them influential members in the digital and cyber business of the UK. We hope they will come back at lateral entry later in their career, and certainly that they will join the reserves.”132