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File: 110196_aacbg_07.txtthe command medical readiness staff worked to resolve. In early January 91, when military conflict appeared imminent, airlift planners accelerated movement of contingency hospital personnel to begin on 12 January 91. At the onset of the air war on 17 Jan 91, 534 medical personnel had arrived to expand USAFE's peacetime hospitals and establish minimal capabilities at USAFE contingency hospitals. Medical deployments continued throughout the air campaign. and 2 weeks prior to the ground war USAFE was able to meet the commitment of 3740 USAF beds . Contingency hospitals, which provided the bulk of the beds, required nearly 4,350 CONUS medical personnel to staff them. Personnel in contingency hospitals and ASFs trained and remained on alert. Those working in USAFE's peacetime hospitals and clinics were inundated with additional war-related tasks while trying to care for the regular full spectrum of beneficiaries. Constant alert and overwork produced a stressful environment. To maximally employ the additional medical expertise brought into USAFE and try to level workload, a sharing of deployed personnel with peacetime hospitals and clinics was directed. All patients on waiting lists for specialty care throughout the command were identified. Specialists from the contingency hospitals and ASFs were then matched with the requirements. As a result, over 8,000 patient visits were provided by deployed medics in a 1-month period. The majority of patients needed specialty care and would have otherwise encountered long waits or aeromedical evacuation to obtain their appointments. Virtually all previous queues for medical care in central Europe and the UK were eliminated. In similar fashion, deployed dental personnel treated staff and other patients at 9 USAFE MTFs, for a total of 3,644 visits. This helped decrease the backlog of demand for dental care, especially for space available family members. BLOOD In the early Stages of DS/PF, the USAFE Blood Program Officer was tasked to activate and manage the CENTCOM Blood Program while modifying the EUCOM Concept of Operations. Within the first two months USAFE deployed two Blood Transshipment Centers (BTCs) to CENTCOM, thereby enabling the storage of more than 14,000 units of blood for casualty treatment. USAFE BTCs also served as the transshipment point for blood moving from CONUS to CENTCOM. The BTC mission to inspect, re-ice, temporarily store, and onward ship blood products ensured that uncompromised blood arrived on time to meet CENTCOM requirements. USAFE's blood donor program collected enough blood to support the projected influx of Gulf War patients into EUCOM MTFs. Six prepositioned USAFE Blood Donor Centers (BDCs) were activated to increase collections for EUCOM Contingency Hospitals. The 7
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