The Military Approach to Medical Planning

Abstract

This chapter will discuss the military approach to medical planning within the context of supporting both military and non-military populations. In addition to providing health service support (HSS) for military operations, military medical services have a long history in providing assistance in complex humanitarian emergencies. Military medical forces may be the only medical services available in the immediate aftermath of conflict and are often required to co-ordinate the re-establishment of civilian services. Military medical personnel were an integral element of the Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories that followed behind combat forces in the Second World War to re-establish the civilian infrastructure. UK medical personnel provided essential services in the immediate aftermath of the invasion in Suez in 1956. UK military medical services have also been directly tasked to provide humanitarian support as demonstrated in following an earthquake in Nepal in 1988, genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and forced population migration in Macedonia in 1999. Since 2001, in Afghanistan NATO military medical forces have been supporting the development of the civilian health system under the guidance of the Afghan Ministry of Public Health and International Agencies such as the World Health Organisation. More recently, UK medical personnel provided emergency medical services to civilians and undertook the first health needs assessment in Basra and Southern Iraq in 2003. The UK has provided emergency medical care and assistance with health sector development in Helmand Province in Afghanistan since 2006.