LONDON, June 11 -- The government of the United Kingdom issued the following news:
UK Surgeon General, Major General Phil Carter, joined senior military medical leaders from across NATO at the alliance's 65th Committee of the Chiefs of Military Medical Services (COMEDS) plenary in Skopje, North Macedonia, last week.
COMEDS is NATO's senior advisory body on military medical matters, bringingmember nations together to align medical standards, share lessons from recent conflicts and improve interoperability, including the movement of casualties across borders.
The plenary gave UK Defence Medical an opportunity to show how it is supporting delivery of the NATO Medical Action Plan, which aims to strengthen military medical support for a range of scenarios, including large-scale combat operations.
Addressing delegates,Major General Phil Carter said:
Military medical capability has a key role in generating and regenerating combat power.
The UK is using the NATO Medical Action Plan to driveworkacross key areas including regulation, workforce development, mass casualty planning, patientevacuationand medicallogistics.
This includes engaging closely with alliesabroadand the NHSand other health providers at hometo improveourunderstanding of what would be required toprovide medicalsupporttomilitary operations at greater scale and under more contested conditions.
The NATO Medical Action Plan focuses on improving interoperability, developing theworkforceand strengthening preparedness for mass casualties, patient evacuation and medicallogistics, alongside closer civil-military cooperation.
Discussions in Skopje reflected the scale of the challenge, including the likelihood that future operations could generate higher casualty numbers than those seen inrecentconflictsin Iraq and Afghanistan.
Major General Cartersaid:
As the Strategic DefenceReviewoutlinedit is essential that weplanfor all challenges, which is why we are working closelywith our alliesto overcome the barriers to interoperabilityandtounderstand the challenges thatlarge-scale combat operationscouldhave onourhealth servicesboth in the UK and across NATO.
NATO medical leaders spoke about theimportance of multinational cooperation in casualty evacuation and medical support, where wounded personnel may need to move through several nations and systems of care.
Major General Carter said:
Casualty evacuation is as much a battle space management and force protection challenge as it is a clinical challenge.
No one nation is able to solve these challenges alone, but collectively, by maximising interoperability, and supporting civil-military cooperation, weare ensuring that we areable to provide our service personnel with the best possible care whatever mission they are engaged on.
The plenary alsoemphasisedthe importance of research innovationand the contribution ofUKDefence Medical personnel based across the NATO alliancewhocontinueto help shape clinical standardsandresearch priorities,andfurthercooperationto prepare military medical services for future conflict.
Major General Cartersaid:
Clinical research, often conducted collaboratively with NATO allies, is fundamental to maintaining the medical advantage. Offering the best possible clinical care tomorrow requires detailed research today. But research iscomplexand it can, therefore, only really be done effectively by nations choosing to work together.
The UK will continue to work through NATO COMEDS and take future opportunities to engage with allies, strengthencooperationand support the collective development of military medical capability across the alliance.
MOD Crown Copyright
Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.
