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File: 110196_aacbg_06.txt
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TYPE OF MEDICAL FACILITY                          #   HOSPITAL BEDS
       
         Contingency Hospitals:
       
             870th USAF CH, RAF Little Rissington   UK            1500
             310th USAF CH, RAF Nocton Hall UK                        750
             317th USAF CH. RAF Bicester UK                             500
             609th USAF CH. Zweibrucken GE                             500
             		Total			                                                    3,250
       
         Peacetime Hospital Expansion:
       
               7100 CSW Medical Center, Wiesbaden GE                286
                    401 TFW Hospital, Torrejon AB SP                124
                  48 TFW Hospital, RAF Lakenheath UK                155
               20 TFW Hospital, RAF Upper Heyford UK                97
                                               Total                    				662*
                                         GRAND TOTAL                  			3,912*
       
               * 172 beds were available for peacetime patient care
       
       STAFFING & PEACETIME MISSION
       
       With arrival of CONUS staffing, contingency hospitals had
       hundreds of doctors, nurses, dentists, biomedical science specialists,
       and administrators There were medical technicians in every specialty
       from direct patient care to lab, pharmacy, x-ray, medical records,
       food service and logistics.   Even with abundant staffing, however, the
       dependent-care mission initially suffered due to heavy base level
       taskings and the divergent locations of patients and contingency
       hospital staffs.
       
       Unlike a European war scenario, dependents were present during
       DS/PF. To complicate matters, Army facilities which expanded to care
       for Gulf casualties terminated routine dependent care. The USAFE goal
       was to maintain peacetime health care levels while serving more Army
       dependents. Had the war started before AF contingency hospital staffs
       arrived from CONUS, USAFE's peacetime medical facilities would have
       ceased dependent care and expanded to their maximum bed capability.
       
        Regarding the movement of CONUS medical forces to Europe, the
       Command Surgeon's guidance was to flow contingency hospital staffs
       not a day too early, and not a day too late. Complicating this
       guidance was the uncertainty of timing for the D-Day execution order
       and inadequate transportation priorities for moving over 6,000 medical
       personnel to USAFE.
       
       Medical movement priority would have initially delayed full
       staffing of USAFE contingency hospitals until 21 days into the war.
       The ground war was projected to fill USAFE's peacetime medical
       facilities in a matter of days. This was a serious disconnect which
       
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