From 4 to 6 June 2024, the NATO Committee of the Chiefs of Military Medical Services (COMEDS) convened it's 61st plenary meeting at NATO Headquarters in Brussels. Surgeons General of COMEDS also met with Senior Officials from the NATO Joint Health Group (JHG). COMEDS received keynote addresses from Lt. Gen. Andrew Rohling, Deputy Chair of the NATO Military Committee, and Dr Bryan Wells, the NATO Chief Scientist. Medical support remains largely a national responsibility. However, it is a critical enabler for deterrence and defence, which now demands a collective approach to address mutual challenges faced across the Alliance.
Chair COMEDS, Major General Tim Hodgetts, opened the official plenary session by welcoming participants from Allied nations, partner nations and observer organisations. The Chair highlighted that in the run up to the NATO Summit in Washington in July, the Alliance continues to reaffirm its unwavering commitment to collective security, resilience, and the promotion of peace and stability in a changing and unstable world. "The Summit also provides yet another opportunity for us to push the COMEDS' agenda by continuing to highlight the key issues we have identified for medical support in Collective Defence," Major General Hodgetts said.
Delivering his keynote remarks Lt. Gen. Andrew Rohling stressed that medical support is a key enabling factor and a vital cross-cutting function within NATO's operational framework. "Ensuring the health and readiness of our forces is paramount, requiring seamless cooperation between military and civilian medical sectors," Lt Gen. Rohling said adding that effective medical support enhances NATO's capability to respond to both military operations and humanitarian crises. "By prioritizing and investing in medical support, we reinforce our collective resilience and readiness, ensuring that we can meet any challenge with comprehensive and unified health services," said the Deputy Chair of the NATO Military Committee.
In his keynote speech to COMEDS Dr Bryan Wells provided an overview of key activities and developments of NATO's Science and Technology Organization. He highlighted opportunities of new technologies for NATO, but also the associated risks. Dr Wells informed the audience about multiple work strands and research projects in the science and technology domain. A number of these include programmes to support the NATO Warfighting Capstone Concept - for example related to resilience and multi-domain operations.
The COMEDS "Medical Manifesto" which highlights proposals for medical support in collective defence, was central to the plenary discussions. The Ukraine Multi-Year Comprehensive Assistance Package and associated Rehabilitation Project was discussed in a special session where the Ukraine Surgeon General was present to provide a situation report and underline requests for support.
Civil-military cooperation for medical support and healthcare delivery was the main focus of COMEDS' meeting with the NATO JHG on 6 June chaired jointly with Dr Arafat, Secretary of State and Head of the Romanian Emergency services. The Surgeons General of COMEDS and Senior Officials from the JHG provided direction and set priorities for an action plan to enhance medical support for collective defence. Allied civil authorities emphasised the need to enhance resilience of the civil health services and systems; to be able to function in a potentially contested environment and to do so for a longer duration. In their informal meeting with senior staff representatives from the European Commission as well as the European Union Military Staff, they addressed key issues of mutual interest and welcomed the close staff-to-staff consultations.
COMEDS endorsed the selection of its next Chair, Brigadier General Petter Iversen, from Norway. He will take over from Maj Gen Hodgetts after the 62nd COMEDS Plenary Meeting towards the end of this year.
