Articles
The French Military Health Service - A Force Serving Man
Lieutenant General (MC) Gérard Nédellec, MD, PhD Surgeon General of the French Military Health Service
A number of innovations punctuate its history; both technical and organisational. The fi rst are marked by the innovations concerning surgery, introduced by the baron Percy, as the external fixer “Percy fi x”, or the triple syringe; the most demonstrative of the second type of innovations are the concept of “damage control surgery” thanks to D. Larrey, the development of the surgical units in Indochina, the modernisation of medical evacuations during the different confl icts and which led to the “MORPHEE*” concept.
The presence of France and its forces overseas has given rise for the SSA to mark its history by important stages: the first French Nobel prize for medicine awarded in 1907 to A. LAVERAN for his work on malaria is a breakthrough of that era, but not the only one; the battle against the grievous endemics, the recognition of epidemics, emerging diseases and illnesses also enabled the SSA personnel to demonstrate their organisational and innovative qualities.
Following the completion of the merger of the military health services in 1968, the modifi cation of the confl icts during the 1990s and the suppression of the national service in the 2000s also
prompted the service to undergo radical transformation: the organisation of activities in a multi-national context or the professionalization of all the structures are two examples of this.
The most recent era is marked by the publication of the “White Paper on National Security and Defence” in June 2008, the global revision of public politics initiated by the President of the Republic, the entire reintegration into NATO or the major changes to the domain of public health. The Military Health Service, whose place and role have been totally reaffi rmed in the quoted documents, knew to work out answers to all these evolutions and, in a large number of cases, had even anticipated them through its Strategic Plan. The reform of the Ministry of Defence has come to accentuate this necessary evolution. The Transformation Plan for the Military Heath Service has been put together to take all of these elements into consideration; it will lead to a better performing, more effi cient organisation, to always be able to respond better to our primary task to support the armed forces and assist the public service.
This plan, that I am delighted to present to you in this special edition of the MCIF, should show the successful outcome pursuant to the law of military programming from 2009 – 2014.
Lieutenant General (MC) Gérard Nédellec, MD, PhD
Surgeon General of the French Military Health Service
Read more: www.mci-forum.com/archive/2010.html
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