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File: 970207_aadcv_020.txtTOPIC AREA: EQUIPMENT STANDARDIZATION / AE KITS, etc. SUBMITTED BY: HQ AFRES/SGXO ISSUE: War Readiness Materials (WRM) failed to support the aeromedical evacuation mission in the United Kingdom. OBSERVATION: Many critical WRM items issued to aeromedical evacuation forces deployed to the UK were not usable because they were not properly maintained in accordance with WRM guidelines nor were the items based on current aeromedical evacuation approved lists of required items. Personnel at each of the three deployment sites in the UK were required to inventory and remove expired or not required WRM items issued to them. Several thousand staff hours were expended by physicians, nurses, medical technicians, and medical supply personnel in this continuing inventory effort. Extensive amounts of items had to be ordered through medical supply channels to restock the outdated, obsolete, or otherwise non-usable medical supplies. One reason was because contingency kits were found to have built and stored for over ten years in uncontrolled climatic conditions. Another reason was that required item lists were changed over the years but the items in the contingency kits were not updated. Major critical items such as drugs used in cardiac emergencies had changed due to either new technology or new medical studies. Old drugs no longer recommended for therapy were contained in the contingency kits. The same critical emergency care related medical items required in the aeromedical evacuation system were also in scarce supply in the contingency hospitals causing keen competition for the same emergency items. Numerous pallet loads of medical supplies to support the aeromedical evacuation operation were shipped to Europe. In spite of this effort, only two medical kits were completed at RAF Upper Heyford in the 60 day period the Northern Region AECC was in operation. We were instructed to release the contingency kits back to the WRM program before we closed out aeromedical evacuation activities in the UK. The WRM program found in the UK to support aeromedical evacuation can be described accurately as a major medical disaster. IMPACT: An undetermined savings of money and manpower. RECOMMENDATION: It would have been much easier to have deployed aeromedical evacuation supply personnel to a central supply point to build contingency/medical kits based on a current listings. The completed kits could then be taken to deployment sites. This would have resulted in having no outdated drugs, no drugs expiring without use in a medical treatment facility that could not use the drugs, no improper storage difficulties, no wasted inventory time, no emergency order requests to overload the medical supply system, etc. 19
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