Planning for the Mobilization of the Nation's Medical Resources

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Planning for the Mobilization of the Nation's Medical Resources

J. R. Beaty / R. E. Brady / G. B. Clark / D. A. Coronado / G. S. Harris

There is growing concern for the capacity of the military services to medically support the probable range of military contingency operations. This reality was brought to national attention in the recently circulated Long Commission Report which investigated circumstances surrounding treatment of U.S. casualties incurred in the Beirut Bombing. The following is an excerpt of a recent OSD Health Affairs statement on the present state of medical contingency planning. if war came today in Europe, we could provide emergency surgery and resuscitation to at most one in five of our wounded in the combat zone. The situation is worse in Korea and Southwest Asia. Our lack of deployable hospitals would result in a death rate among our wounded of well over 20%--as compared to the 2.5% death rate in Korea and Vietnam. In a crisis, it would take at least 18 months to relieve our shortages of medical equipment. During that period we would not be able to return the numbers of patients to duty that would be needed to sustain our combat strength. (js)