We are just in the process. I mentioned Dr. Murrison. He produced another report, this time on those who lost a limb in service. Dr. Murrison, I should point out, is now a minister in the Ministry of Defence. He wasn't at the time he produced the reports.
He identified the need for a service within the NHS that would be able to address the particular needs of veterans. You may be aware that for those who are injured in service, the Ministry of Defence provides an excellent service through Headley Court rehabilitation services. They provide high-tech, high-spec limbs as appropriate to these individuals. So the question was raised as to what happens when they go into the NHS, because the NHS was not providing to that level for the wider population.
We've identified what I think is a relatively small budget but certainly one that will more than meet the needs of veterans who have been injured. The numbers are relatively low. It's £15 million over a period of three and a half or four years. With that money, apart from the cost of the kit, the hardware that's needed, we're upscaling nine centres across England. Roughly speaking, there are three in the north, three across the midlands, and three across the south. There will be some extra financing going in from there so they can provide not only, as I said, the high-spec limbs the veterans need but also the other rehab requirements that go with those.
I should add very quickly of course that the NHS here does not want to run a two-tier service. We're very conscious of that and that does create challenges when we're creating something different for veterans.
So although we've put this extra money in for veterans who have lost a limb, the wider objective of this of course is to bring the skills and the knowledge of the clinicians and so on, within the NHS up so that the wider limbless community within England will also benefit from what we're trying to do. But certainly the needs of those individual veterans are being met and will be met in the future as they discharge from the services.