CAE Exercise News

CAE Exercise News, Official Review of the "NATO Cooperative Adventure Exchange 98", 12th November, 1998.

1 (BE) Military Support Hospital
EMIR Ar RRF CAE - 1998

The Belgian Field Hospital in the snow.

The 1 Military Support Hospital was founded 01 July 1992. The mission of this unit is to provide role 3 medical support for the units of the Rapid Reaction Forces.

The Military Support Hospital is a newly developed, mobile hospital which can be transported by road, by train, by ship or by plane. It can be constructed by way of a combination of containers, tents and buildings.

The hospital is built up according to a modular concept. This permits the partial deployment of the hospital in particular situations. This concept also makes it possible to move a part of the hospital, while other parts continue working.

The hospital has the latest developed equipment, in order to offer medical treatment which lives up to the modern, normally high, Belgian standard of treatment.

The hospital has 4 surgical sections with a total of 80 patients. As the average stay in the hospital is 48 hours, the hospital has 160 beds.

The personnel consists of 300 persons. Half of the personnel are logisticians, the other half are medical technicians. The technical personnel consists of 30 doctors, 1 dentist, 3 pharmacists and 70 nurses.

1 (BE) Military Support Hospital Role 1 Dentist Med Admin Psy Surgery Surgery Section (x4) Technical support Sterilization Pharmacy Laboratory X-Ray Hospitalization Hospitalization Section (x4) HQ & Services Coy HQ Supply Transport & Maintenance Shower & Laundry Services Camping Equipment Defence

ITALIAN FIELD HOSPITAL ROLE 2

Known as "REPARTO DI SANITA' AVIOTRASPORTABILE", this Unit was created back in the 1960s and performed its first mission in SCANDINAVIA with the ACE Mobile Force (Land).

During the following years the structure and the role of the Unit have been modified and today it has the role of backing up AMF(L) on all missions in the Southern European area (ITALY, GREECE, TURKEY).

In recent years the Battalion has taken part in Operation PROVIDE COMFORT in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1991, from February 1993 until December 1994 it was deployed in Mozambique within ONUMOZ Operation; recently it has taken part in Operation SUNRISE in Albania.

Within the Italian Army organisation, the Italian Medical Battalion is part of the CUNEENSE Contingent, which belongs to the TAURINENSE Alpini Brigade.

The total capacity of the Unit for contingency operations is : 41 Officers (including 29 doctors); 37 NCOs (including 16 nurses); 219 Draft and Volunteer soldiers.

In order to fulfil its role efficiently, this Unit is organised as follows:
Commander and Staff Officers; Headquarters Company which includes all non medical staff; Field Hospital, with two sections, emergency surgery and general medicine and with a 70-bed capacity; Clearing Station, with one emergency surgery section and forty beds.

One Medical Helicopter section for MEDEVAC and CASEVAC belonging to the field Hospital and two ambulance points belonging to the Mobile Section. For Exercise CAE 98 this medical Unit, performing real world medical activities only, is divided into two sections.

The first one is the Field Hospital, which is located inside Cerklje Airbase and consists of different modern medical facility sectors: reception and first aid; triage; radiology and ultrasound; containerised analysis and chemistry; orthopaedics; ophthalmology; dental care; sheltered surgery and intensive therapy; admission (with forty beds).

Medical equipment includes inflatable tents with a very fast installation capability and with inside air conditioning. During this exercise we have a new containerised surgery room of Belgian MODULMED in addition to the one normally used.

The medical staff is made up of : 10 Medical Officers; 1 Veterinary Officer; 7 Paramedical NCOs; 4 Voluunteer Italian Red Cross nurses. The Clearing station is located in Gorica, 65 kilometres north of here, and consists of a smaller Hospital with : reception and first aid; triage; radiology; operating theatre in a tent, admission (with 30 beds).

The Clearing Station medical staff is made up of : 5 Medical Officers; 5 Paramedical NCOs; 2 volunteer Italian Red Cross nurses.

This Medical Unit is totally mobile and capable to deploy with a minimum warning. The hospital can be deployed in all its components or just with part of it according to the operational situation of the moment.

Usually deterrent phase policies also require dedication of medical support to the civilian population: for this reason a team of doctors and female nurses is ready to intervene on call.