Shame there’s not a cheap, easily and readily available portable medication device asthmatics could use to allow them to carry out the roles perfectly safely 
1 Like
Short of performing bilateral lung transplant there is no other way of managing Asthma other than by medication and/or environmental mitigation.
The US allow you to join with Asthma as long as it developed in childhood.
Just stick an inhaler in every ration pack, it’s not like we worry about the supply chain for food breaking down in theatre.
And what? You’re down route with an extended resupply issues like Shader which requires a minimum 10 working day lead time due to local customs?
More asthma attacks than normal due to the high levels of quite literal feaces in the air?
Not good outcomes.
It’s not even a case of managing it properly, you can’t account for curveballs like that in theatre.
4 Likes
Never going to happen.
They eventually might have no choice.
Asthma numbers remain high, obesity is on the way up, if we reach the position that the US is already in (anyone seriously think we won’t?) then drastic action might be necessary.
It’s easy to maintain incredibly high standards when you have a shrinking force and plenty of candidates. If either of those things change it’s time for Plan B.
If we get to a position where only 30% of the population is eligible to join an organisation that’s a shadow of its former self with less and less attractive terms and conditions, then you are facing a real manpower crisis.
The US had demonstrated for decades of high tempo operations that Asthmatics can serve without issue, so don’t see how we won’t end up following suit.
Thread drift - whilst at RAF Bruggen, GW1 brewing, I was given a deployment notice out to the sand pit. Primary duty was tgt planning / allocation (I sort of did this as a Tacecval / war role), secondary plan was to go fly a jet to bomb Iraq to fill in for any casualties!! 
Part of the contingency planning was for all nominated aircrew to have their wisdom teeth extracted before heading out - very limited dental facilities out there. I had been laughing at all the crews turning up to the Tornado Sim looking like hamsters. Gulp - my turn…
I pointed out to the posting desk that I was not actually qualified on the “Mighty Fin.” Ah, cancel that posting - teeth were safe!
Because future force requirements will be even lower than they are now, everything remote, everything non-operational contracted out.
Why would you need your wisdom teeth extracted, may as well remove them all?
A “fang doctor” in HQ Somewhere advised that a partial / impacted wisdom tooth would cause significant pain levels (& of course, depending on wisdom tooth movement, this pain can spread to other molars), As such, the risk of this happening on deployment (however unlikely) would impact (pardon the pun! 
) / jeopardise operations for constituted crew that had done all the work-up trg.
Wisdom teeth extraction can sometimes require hospital surgery (very limited resources in some of the sand pit locations) whereas an “ordinary” tooth can be yanked out with comparative ease.
Statistically, no-one knew where he got his “risk” figures from, as I think that in the 4-5 yrs preceding GW1, there has maybe only one such case of an impacted wisdom tooth amongst aircrew at Bruggen.
It may have gone into the overall planning as a “what if” factor, especially as the “worse case” aircrew casualty predictions were quite pessimistic compared to actual happenings.
But they were quite happy to allow aircrew to fly in normal operations over Germany and stand QRA with their wisdom teeth.
Having seen wisdom teeth removed using mallet and osteotome (chisel) and having had them removed myself, it is not a procedure without either pain or risk.
That fang doctor should have been taken over Iraq and ejected into the hinterlands there.
Day to day operations, almost zero risk of disruption to operational status.
Not arguing there!
But instead, he got to practice on all the aircrew because of “operational needs” which they invented; retired from active service and went into private practice and is now fully retired on his personal yacht in the Bahamas.
1 Like
Can tell they’re an officer.
No repercussions and possibly a knighthood.
Nah, I think that this policy was put into effect on multiple flying bases in RAFG? He (could have been she, dunno) was a policy decider, so higher up the tree.
Well, certainly not going to retire to even Skegness on their military pay!
Do you think there would be any tolerance for people who were potentially misdiagnosed? I was diagnosed as a very young child however was only because of a chest infection I had at the time. I’ve not had symptoms my whole life but im worried if I apply I won’t get it because it’s on my medical record.
Hmmm, you’re in a “grey” area - not sure of the protocols to start off a provisional assessment - what sort of timescale are you looking at for any potential application, & for what trade / branch?
The added difficulty is that the medical are now run by Capita - if there are any areas that require in-depth review, they will defer the decision to a Service Medical Board. That will all take time.
Not an expert, but I would suggest 2 things to do.
- Contact RAF Careers to seek their advice (especially based on any projected timeline for application / hoped for trade or branch).
- Get a review letter from your GP to say something to the effect that you have never had recorded symptoms of asthma / required associated medication & that in their medical opinion, it was an incorrect diagnosis at the time.
There’s been a lot of that. Around when I was a kid there was a period of time when toddlers with a wheeze were given a diagnosis of childhood asthma.
It’s not unheard of, the medics are aware, but if you know you have this on your record you need to challenge it with your GP as soon as you can to get your records updated.
Seconded.
I have heard that there was almost a protocol to issue (prescribe) inhalers resulting in a peak in the number of “child asthma sufferers” but was actually restricted to a single remote case with no further follow up.
As per MJ suggests a letter from your GP confirming the misdiagnosis/single case would help explain the black and white
1 Like