Paracelsus: Focus on medical logistics

Multinational Medical Coordination Centre/ European Medical Command invites to first planning workshop for NATO Article 5 operations. Representatives from 15 nations met from 8 to 10 November. The aim: a common understanding of medical logistics within the military alliance.

The most important planning parameters of the workshop were the quantities and units commonly used to calculate stockpiling and timely reordering of consumables. For example, the consumption and reordering of blood products and first-aid kits for a NATO Article 5 conflict was planned. They are generally considered an elementary component of any military medical supply.

NATO common ground: different logistics systems

The participants from each nation presented the national military logistics system and the interaction with the respective national military and civilian medical support systems. The unifying feature of all presentations was the diversity of the individual systems of procurement and material flow.

Closing gaps in knowledge and understanding

The seminar gave participants the opportunity to expand their international network and deepen their knowledge of military-tactical details and was "a good initiative to expand multinational understanding of medical logistics." Dutch Major John van L. also confirmed the effort to fill a gap in the provision of combined military-medical-logistics and tactical knowledge in NATO.

MedLog wargaming as a system review

The programme also included a variety of lectures on land tactics, defensive and offensive operations and their medical support to offensive and defensive operations at brigade level. The new knowledge was put into practice with "MedLog wargaming". The multinational participants were able to test and improve their knowledge by practicing the NATO medical support system and medical logistic planning within an Article 5 conflict scenario. Also deficiencies in the system were identified, which need to be closed in the future.

PARACELSUS workshop as a cornerstone

With the Paracelsus Workshop, the MMCCMultinational Medical Coordination Centre/EMCEuropean Medical Command is a pioneer in this field. The common understanding was the aim and also the working basis and thus the fundament to close the identified gaps in the next steps. The next workshop will take up these topics and is scheduled to take place in autumn next year.

by Rico Maderthoner