This paper discusses the principles of medical evacuation planning and execution with specific consideration of the command and control arrangements for Forward medical evacuation. The current operational context has focused efforts on helicopter medical evacuation as the main evacuation element of the pre-hospital military medical care system rather than the ground ambulance. This paper complements the significant number of papers recently published by RAMC clinical staff on pre-hospital care.
Both the armed forces and medical services of Poland have been an active participant in international missions for many years.
MCIF is very grateful to Colonel Dziegielewski, Surgeon General of the Polish Military Medical Service, to have granted the following interview.
This paper concentrates on the regulation of casualties through the medical system. It considers the casualty flow throughout the system looking at how demand (or access), capacity and evacuation must be balanced. If the balance is broken, either the medical system has been over-resourced, which is inefficient, or the medical system has been overwhelmed, which is ineffective. Finally the paper discusses how the medical system should respond to a casualty surge.
