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FALLS CHURCH, Va. (NNS) -- Vice Adm. Forrest Faison, Navy surgeon general and chief, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, appeared alongside his Army and Air Force counterparts before the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee’s Defense Subcommittee and the U.S. House Appropriations Committee’s Defense Subcommittee April 3, 2019.
Each committee acknowledged the service’s need to secure resources during a time of great change in the Military Health System (MHS).
Throughout Faison’s remarks, he emphasized Navy Medicine’s commitment to readiness as reform efforts continue within the MHS. Similar to his service counterparts, Faison noted the importance of a successful transition as a key factor in his commitment to readiness.
“The Department of the Navy is in full support of the transfer of administration and management of military treatment facilities (MTFs) to the Defense Health Agency (DHA) as required by the FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).”
He continued by saying, “We have no greater responsibility than providing medical forces that are ready, prepared and present to save the lives of those who volunteer to serve our nation.”
The MHS transformation began its first phase of transition in October 2018 and has afforded the services the opportunity to refocus their efforts on their respective priorities. “For us, this transition represents an opportunity to laser focus exclusively on the readiness of Sailors and Marines,” said Faison.
Navy Medicine continues to take measures to support the readiness requirements while sustaining the critical services and responsibilities to man, train and equip forces. One of the measures comes in the form of the newly constructed Navy Medicine Readiness Training Commands (NMRTCs).
The NMRTCs are an integrated system of health that have specific responsibilities to maintain the readiness of our assigned medical forces, support installation and operational commanders’ requirements and provide a Navy command structure essential for proper execution of service-specific requirements. Most importantly, these commands will ensure the agility to rapidly deploy medical personnel.
Faison also highlighted Navy Medicine’s trauma training strategy and the partnerships at James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center, John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital and the University of Florida Health Shands Hospital. These partnerships are some of the successful ways in which Hospital Corpsmen maintain clinical practices in order to achieve the same survivability rates as previous conflicts.
“Integral to advancing our expeditionary combat casualty care capabilities is ensuring our medical personnel sustain their clinical readiness skills,” said Faison. “This is especially critical as we return to competition between great powers and the reality that future conflicts will present challenges – not seen in the recent past.”
As the next phase of transition for the MHS nears, Faison acknowledged the inherent complexity of the major organizational changes to come and the importance to adequately resource Navy Medicine’s human capital strategy.
“A key priority for us is our human capital strategy – both our military and our civilian colleagues who comprise our team – to ensure we have the proper mix of professionals that are trained, organized and quipped to meet their responsibilities,” said Faison.
Despite the ongoing changes taking place throughout the MHS, Faison reiterated his appreciation of the Navy Medicine team.
“Our commitment to you is that we will never waiver from our obligation to be ready to save the lives of those entrusted to [our] care. I am proud of our Navy Medicine team and remain appreciative of your strong support.”
Navy Medicine is a global health care network of 63,000 personnel that provides health care support to the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, their families and veterans in high operational tempo environments at expeditionary medical facilities, medical treatment facilities, hospitals, clinics, hospital ships and research units around the world.
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| Date Taken: | 04.03.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 04.04.2019 15:57 |
| Story ID: | 316981 |
| Location: | FALLS CHURCH, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 106 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Navy Surgeon General Pledges his Commitment to Readiness during Congressional Testimony, by Angela Ciancio, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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