It’s a little late, but I’m pinging FR’s resident Royal Australian Navy veteran for his thoughts on this important national defense issue.
Keep us abreast of developments ...
It's a storm in a D-cup (sorry, couldn't resist).
My view, for what it is worth, is there is little wrong with this - although I can understand why some peoples initial reaction would be one of incredulity.
But the fact is that the Royal Australian Navy (indeed the entire Australian Defence Force) is a highly professional and proficient organisation which relies on attracting the best possible recruits, and on retaining people once quite a lot of money has been spent training them to maintain that high quality. Doing this means offering and delivering real benefits to those who have chosen to serve their country in a military capacity.
And that includes medical benefits. Even if these operations, as indicated, cost tens of thousands of dollars, that is cheap if it lead to the retention of a sailor who might have otherwise left the service - it's cost a lot more to recruit and train another sailor even up to Leading Seaman standard (probably even to Able Seaman standard).
Even if it's not that serious, the fact is, this type of money is worth spending even if it just improves a sailors performance.
And then there are other factors to consider. The Australian Defence Force (Thank God, and touch wood) doesn't currently have to deal with a lot of casualties - but we do have to maintain the infrastructure that would be needed if that ever suddenly changed. In other words, we have medical resources (and in this, I would include mental health resources) sitting around without that much to do.
It is both appropriate and useful in terms of maintaining proficiency and ensuring procedures work as they should, for these people to be doing something. It is also appropriate for the Navy to be developing and maintaining relationships with civilian practitioners, it may need to utilise in the future.
The relationship the Navy's medical bureaucracy develops with a cosmetic surgeon now, and the hospitals they work in may be very useful in the future, when due to an accident, or combat, etc, we have people who need reconstructive surgery.
During my time in the Navy, I had cosmetic dentistry paid for by the Navy. I had counselling for work related stress. Were either of those things strictly necessary? No, not in my case - but they did help me. And they helped me to better discharge my duties. When you find yourself on a semi-diplomatic posting to London, where you are sometimes finding yourself having to speak up for the Royal Australian Navy to Royal Navy officers, the last thing you need is to feel self conscious about your appearance. Maybe that seems petty to some people - in fact, I admit, I'm rather embarassed to admit something so minor worried me. But it did - and fixing things helped me to do my job better. It might have been a fault in me - but it was in the interests of the Navy, and my country to correct it.