Life Care Fight Reaches Major Milestone For Ben Parkinson

The fight to ensure a severely injured paratrooper receives the full level of care has reached a ‘milestone’, according to his lawyers.

Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson is known as ‘Britain’s most severely injured soldier’ after losing both legs and suffering more than 40 injuries in a landmine blast in 2006.

After what his lawyers defined as 'a series of care failings', health and military bosses have pledged to work together to support the serviceman.

Parkinson's care providers - namely NHS England, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Doncaster Clinical Commissioning Group - have agreed to set up a steering group to take over responsibility for providing his care, with a holistic assessment of his needs to be completed in the near future.

This comes after the lawyers identified gaps in his care because of a lack of funding and coordination between the organisations.

His family has been frustrated that broken gym equipment and an iPad crucial to his rehabilitation have not been replaced, and funding shortages have meant they haven't had enough to pay overnight carers the minimum wage for respite care.

They now say they are “hopeful” this latest decision will see progress made for the soldier. 

His mother Diane Dernie said: “We have been extremely frustrated that our requests for answers about who is responsible for providing certain elements of Ben’s care seemed to have been ignored previously.

“Ben is eager for this confusion to be cleared up as soon as possible so he can concentrate on his ongoing rehabilitation and not have to worry about which organisation should be providing what.

"(...) We now urge the MoD, NHS England and Doncaster CCG to ensure they deliver on their promise and provide Ben with the care he deserves and needs."

The MoD has confirmed that it is responsible for commissioning primary care for Ben. NHS England has agreed that it is responsible for commissioning community and secondary care for him.

Since emerging from a coma in 2006, Parkinson has stunned medical staff, friends and family with what he's been able to achieve.

After the accident, he trekked through the Arctic, carried the Olympic flame, kayaked the Yukon River and was appointed Freeman of Doncaster, his hometown. 

The MoD has confirmed the Lance Bombardier will be part of a “proof of concept phase” of a new scheme called IPC4V which stands for “Integrated personal Commissioning for Veterans”.

This means if his care plan works well, it could be extended to other severely injured forces personnel.

Parkinson fought the Battle of Rommalia Bridge on his 19th birthday and served a 7-month winter tour in Kosovo with 7PARA RHA before volunteering to deploy to Afghanistan.    

His dream to become a paratrooper goes back all the way to his childhood, when his grandad used to tell him stories of when he was in the RAF in WW2.

To this day, he says that he doesn't regret joining the Army.