UK Surgeon General joins NATO medical leaders in North Macedonia

Major General Phil Carter attended the NATO Chiefs of Military Medical Services plenary in Skopje to help shape the alliance’s military medical readiness.

UK Surgeon General, Major General Phil Carter, joined senior military medical leaders from across NATO at the alliance’s 65th Committee of the Chiefs of Military Medical Services (COMEDS) plenary in Skopje, North Macedonia, last week. 

COMEDS is NATO’s senior advisory body on military medical matters, bringing member nations together to align medical standards, share lessons from recent conflicts and improve interoperability, including the movement of casualties across borders. 

The plenary gave UK Defence Medical an opportunity to show how it is supporting delivery of the NATO Medical Action Plan, which aims to strengthen military medical support for a range of scenarios, including large-scale combat operations. 

Addressing delegates, Major General Phil Carter said:  

Military medical capability has a key role in generating and regenerating combat power. 

The UK is using the NATO Medical Action Plan to drive work across key areas including regulation, workforce development, mass casualty planning, patient evacuation and medical logistics.  

This includes engaging closely with allies abroad and the NHS and other health providers at home to improve our understanding of what would be required to provide medical support to military operations at greater scale and under more contested conditions.

The NATO Medical Action Plan focuses on improving interoperability, developing the workforce and strengthening preparedness for mass casualties, patient evacuation and medical logistics, alongside closer civil-military cooperation. 

Discussions in Skopje reflected the scale of the challenge, including the likelihood that future operations could generate higher casualty numbers than those seen in recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.