Abstract

When the multinational force deployed to the Gulf after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, military intelligence assessed the Iraqis as possessing and being capable of using weapons of mass destruction. There was judged to be a real threat that chemical weapons, especially nerve agents and certain biological weapons would be used. Coalition countries attempted to reduce the effects by the use of medical countermeasures. Since the Gulf conflict a series of medico legal problems from this policy have arisen, some of which have formed the basis of claims against MOD. In the last article I reviewed consent to treatment in a military operational context and looked at potential clinical negligence issues. In this article I shall look at relevant employment law and review how medicine regulatory provision applies to medical countermeasures.