The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Medical Service is charged with the mission of conserving the fighting strength of the AFP and to effectively manage medical service resources through the application of diagnostic, therapeutic, rehabilitative, restorative, and preventive medicine in maintaining the health and well being of the military personnel and their dependents.
The AFP Medical Service Organization is composed of the Office of The Surgeon General, Office of the Chief Surgeon of each Major Services (Army, Air Force, Navy), and the Commanding Officers of Medical Treatment Facilities of the General Headquarters, Unified Commands, and AFP-Wide Service Support Separate Units (AFPWSSUs), and Major Services.
The Office of the Surgeon General led by The Surgeon General (TSG), is the Special Medical Adviser of the Secretary of National Defense and of the Chief of Staff, AFP on all medical and health matters affecting the AFP. It also exercises technical supervision over all Medical Treatment Facilities and other units of Medical Service in the AFP. Its principal concern is to ensure that the AFP personnel are healthy and physically fit to perform its mandated functions.
The Office of The Surgeon General exercises supervisory and staff functions of planning, directing, coordinating, and controlling of matters pertaining to Medical Service namely, Medical Corps (MC), Veterinary Corps (VC), and Medical Administrative Corps (MAC) of the AFP. It is composed of the member corps of the AFP Medical Service organization and serves as the higher management standpoint of the AFP Medical Service through the formulation of plans, policies and programs that shall ensure the successful accomplishment of its mission and functions.
To ensure the comprehensive delivery of Healthcare services, TSG exercises coordinative relationship to The Chief Nurse, AFP and The Chief Dental Service, AFP on matters relative to their respective functions.
AFP Medical Service Structure
Source: Ministry of Defence Philippines
Number of Medical Service Personnel
| Medical Corps | 410 |
| Specialization | Nr |
| General Surgery | 17 |
| Orthopaedic Surgery | 24 |
| Plastic Surgery | 3 |
| Neuro-Surgery | 4 |
| Anesthesiology | 20 |
| Ophthalmology | 9 |
| ENT-HNS | 12 |
| Urology | 7 |
| Nephrology | 2 |
| Pulmonology | 1 |
| Cardiology | 4 |
| Gastroenterology | 2 |
| Infectious Medicine | 1 |
| Paediatrics | 18 |
| OB-Gyn | 19 |
| Dermatology | 1 |
| Radiology | 20 |
| Internal Medicine | 24 |
| Rehab Medicine | 6 |
| Psychiatry | 5 |
| Pathology | 5 |
| Emergency Medicine | 3 |
| Family Medicine | 3 |
| Occupational Medicine | 1 |
| Nuclear Medicine | 2 |
| General Practice | 34 |
| NP Screener | 5 |
| Veterinary Corps | 38 |
| Medical Administrative Corps | 148 |
Source: Ministry of Defence Philippines
AFP Medical Treatment Facilities
The AFP has one (1) Medical Centre, three (3) general hospitals; twenty-seven (27) station hospitals, seventeen (17) medical dispensaries, ten (10) forward support medical companies, and one (1) medical service school.
| Name of Military Hospitals | Bed Capacity |
| AFP Medical Centre | 1200 |
| Presidential Security Group (PSG) Station Hosp | 15 |
| Cp Gen Emilio Aguinaldo Station Hosp, GHQ & HSC | 25 |
| Fort Del Pilar Stn Hosp, Phil Military Academy | 50 |
| Cp Aquino Stn Hosp, NOLCOM | 50 |
| Cp Nakar Stn Hosp, SOLCOM | 25 |
| Cp Lapu-Lapu Stn Hosp, CENTCOM | 50 |
| Army General Hospital, PA | 200 |
| Kuta Major Cesar Sang-Ang Stn Hosp, 1ID, PA | 25 |
| Army Stn Hosp, 2ID, PA | 30 |
| Cp Macario Peralta Stn Hosp, 3ID, PA | 25 |
| Cp Evangelista Stn Hosp, 4ID, PA | 100 |
| Cp Melchor F Dela Cruz Stn Hosp, 5ID, PA | 30 |
| Cp Siongco Stn Hosp, 6ID, PA | 50 |
| Fort Magsaysay Army Stn Hosp, 7ID PA | 50 |
| Cp Lukban Stn Hosp, 8ID, PA | 25 |
| Cp Elias Angeles Stn Hosp, 9ID, PA | 20 |
| Air Force General Hospital, PAF | 100 |
| Fernando Air Base Hospital, PAF | 70 |
| Basa Air Base Hosp, PAF | 25 |
| Air Force City Hosp, PAF | 25 |
| BGEN Benito Ebuen Air Base Hosp, PAF | 25 |
| Edwin Andrews Air Base Hosp, PAF | 29 |
| Major Danilo Atienza Air Base Hosp, PAF | 10 |
| Cp Gen Artemio Ricarte Stn Hosp, PAF | 20 |
| Manila Naval Hospital, PN | 85 |
| Cavite Naval Hospital, PN | 100 |
| Naval Stn Leovigeldo Gantioqui Hosp, PN | 25 |
| Cp Panacan Stn Hosp, NFEM, PN | 25 |
| Cp Navarro Gen Hosp, NFWM, PN | 50 |
| Cp Teodolfo Bautista Stn Hosp, NFWM,PN | 25 |
Source: Ministry of Defence Philippines
The Victoriano Luna Medical Center is a level 3 military hospital with a bed capacity of 1,200. It is under the AFP Health Service Command (AFPHSC) formerly the AFP Medical Center. AFPHSC as the new name was activated on 01 April 2017.
Capabilities:
a. Provides consultation and treatment in all health care fields of speciality except organ transplant.
b. Promotive, preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic, restorative, and rehabilitative health services.
c. Conducts career courses, residency, internship, and in-service training to health service personnel. Ambulance services to in-patients.
d. Provides disaster response teams in times of disasters and calamities; medical personnel for civic action activities; and medical/surgical teams in support to Internal Security Operation (ISO) campaign.
Field Deployments
- Basically, the system of evacuation and hospitalization in the area of operation (AO) functions in the following manner:
- When a soldier in a combat battalion is wounded on the battlefield, the first aid is Self-Aid/Buddy Aid (SA/BA). 2) As the situation allows, he then receives medical care from one of the combat medics. These combat medics perform emergency medical care.
- The patient is then evacuated by medical platoon evacuation personnel or by field ambulance to a company aid post (CAP), where he may be given further emergency medical care, and then to the Battalion Aid Station (BAS).
- The patient may bypass the CAP and be moved directly to the BAS. The BAS is the first MTF in the evacuation system where a patient is treated by medical personnel who have had specialized medical training beyond that provided by a combat medic.
- If the patient requires additional treatment, he is prepared for further evacuation. When evacuated beyond the BAS, he leaves the unit level medical service support system and enters the division level system.
- An ambulance from the Forward Support Medical Platoon (FSMP) of a Forward Support Medical Company FSMC) attached to the infantry brigade picks up the patient at the BAS and transports him to the Brigade Treatment Facility (BTF) which is capable of more extensive treatment.
- Assuming that this patient is to be evacuated farther to the rear, sufficient treatment is given to prepare him for the trip. An ambulance either ground or air then comes forward from the division area and evacuates the patient to the Division or Area Command Station Hospital or Civilian Hospitals in the area.
One (1) field line ambulance (FLA) is normally allocated to each medical platoon of the infantry battalion to evacuate casualties from CCP/CAP to the BAS, and one (1) FLA allocated to each FSMP to evacuate casualties from the BAS to the BTF or nearest military/civilian hospital if so warrants.
Forward Medical Emergency Deployable Intermediate Care
System (Forward MEDICS) is a modularized deployable medical support system which may initially be attached to an ill-equipped, undermanned Station hospital/medical treatment facility, or attached to an FSMC at brigade level to enhance/augment its resuscitative surgical/trauma care capability. The Forward MEDICS is one of the major operating units of the AFP Medical Center (AFPMC) and assumes the mission and function of the deactivated AFP Mobile Surgical Hospital.
Functions:
- It is designated to admit, sort, and temporarily hospitalize injured and wounded soldiers.
- It addresses life-threatening conditions of combat casualties which are beyond the capabilities of combat medics.
- It provides emergency surgical care to stabilize casualties who might otherwise die or lose a limb before reaching definitive care.
- Provides intensive care to post-operative patients and to critically-ill patients prior to evacuation.
- Contains all necessary medical materials (including consumables), instruments and equipment for full operation (casualty surge).
- It has basic field type laboratory for basic blood diagnostic for blood transfusion.
- It is provided with a field type x-ray imaging and processing capability.
Civil-Military Cooperation
The AFP Medical Service continuously participates in the different civilian-military cooperation by sending medical teams to:
- Medical/Civic Actions
- Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response
Other Special Aspects
The Medical Corps Officers are active members of the Philippine Association of Military Surgeons, Inc. (PAMS, Inc.) which are accredited with the Philippine Medical Association.
While the Veterinary Corps Officers and Medical Administrative Corps Officers are active members of the Military Veterinarians Association of the Philippines (MVAP) and Association of Medical Administrative Corps of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Inc. (AMACAFP, Inc.) respectively.
(status: 06 July 2020)
