Navy Surgeon General Surveys Guantanamo Medical Operations

Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Patrick Thompson | Surgeon general of the Navy, Vice Adm. Adam Robinson speaks with Joint Detention Group personnel during a tour of Joint Task Force Guantanamo, March 29, 2008. Robinson visited the JTF to meet with health care providers and tour the detention facilities. JTF Guantanamo conducts safe and humane care and custody of detained enemy combatants. The JTF conducts interrogation operations to collect strategic intelligence in support of the Global War on Terror and supports law enforcement and war crimes investigations. JTF Guantanamo is committed to the safety and security of American service members and civilians working inside its detention facilities.  

03.28.2008

Story by Petty Officer 2nd Class Nathaniel Moger 

Joint Task Force Guantanamo Public Affairs

By Petty Officer 2nd Class Nathaniel Moger
Joint Task Force Guantanamo Public Affairs

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba – Surgeon general of the Navy Vice Adm. Adam Robinson visited U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay March 28-30 to meet with medical corps personnel and observe operations.

Providing quality medical care is always a manpower and logistical challenge. After observing Navy medical operations for U.S. Naval Station personnel and Joint Task Force Troopers, Robinson left assured that the health care professionals are more than prepared to provide force health protection.

"The care I've seen given at the naval hospital and the detention camps is consistent, patient and family-centered care," said Robinson.

Force health protection is a Navy Medicine concept designed to maintain a fit and ready fighting force that can deploy at a moment's notice. Robinson noted several aspects of force health protection being practiced here at the highest standards.

"(Navy medicine) keeps a fit and ready force and deploys with the warfighters to care for the warfighters," said Robinson. "Then they take care of eligible family members: spouses, children, parents, grandparents."

Robinson sees the family-oriented medicine being practiced at the naval station as a huge benefit for Sailors and Marines.

"One of the biggest satisfiers the Navy has is the medical care we give," said Robinson. "With married uniformed forces I can't just worry about taking care of them. I need to worry about their family members too. If we focus only on warrior care and not the family members we've missed the mark."

Robinson went on to note that quality health care also factors heavily into maintaining high retention rates.

Robinson, whose strategic plan focuses on maintaining a healthy fighting force, got to view one of the paradoxes of Guantanamo Bay: the detention medical facilities where Navy medicine is utilized to treat patients who may not want to be healthy, who may not want care. The Joint Task Force Joint Medical Group, commanded by Navy Capt. Bruce Meneley, is tasked with this difficult mission.

"The unique challenges the JMG faces include providing the same quality of care to the detainees as we do to all other military members, which can require bringing considerable medical assets to Guantanamo," said Meneley. "It also includes trying to establish a certain level of trust with the detainees so the will allow us to provide that care."

Meneley also asserts that "no matter how many reports you see, no matter how much it is described, you can never fully comprehend and appreciate the complexity and logistical difficulties of Guantanamo without seeing it firsthand. It allows the Surgeon General (Robinson) to go back to Washington and state he has seen the high quality of care provided with his own eyes."

After viewing JMG operations, Robinson agrees that the medicine being practiced here is indeed blind to the status of the patient; detainees get treated the same as everyone else on base.

"We give the best care and best advice and try to practice preventive medicine for whichever patient we see," said Robinson. "I think that is what differentiates Navy medicine and military medicine from other types of medicine. Whoever needs our assistance or our help from a medical standpoint, no matter what their status, we're there to provide it."

• Date Taken: 03.28.2008
• Date Posted: 03.31.2008 15:55
• Story ID: 17942