Strengthening Allied Medical Cooperation
In October, personnel from the Norwegian Armed Forces Medical Services, Medical Regiment, Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron and MED-DOIIT (Medical Deployable Outbreak and Incident Investigation Team) visited colleagues in the Royal Air Force Tactical Medical Wing (TMW) at Brize Norton Air Base.
– Allied cooperation and the exchange of experience are central to our professional development. Such visits help strengthen competence, interoperability, and our ability to accomplish joint missions. This is of great importance to the Medical Regiment of the Norwegian Armed Forces Medical Services, says Commander of the Medical Regiment Ronny Skeie.
The purpose of the visit was to exchange experience and knowledge in infectious disease transport and mass patient evacuation, as well as to strengthen interoperability and explore opportunities for further cooperation as Norway and the UK are close allies. The UK team gave the Norwegian team visiting extensive insights into their platforms, capabilities and concept of infectious disease transport.
– Our units worked closely together in providing humanitarian support during the earthquake in Türkiye, and we have maintained a good dialogue with our UK counterparts since then. They invited us to Brize Norton to exchange experiences and explore further opportunities for cooperation, says Håvard, from the Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron.
Our UK counterparts gave us a warm welcome and shared insights into their capabilities and platforms. In return, we shared our own experiences related to the mass evacuation of sick and injured patients — an area in which we have gained substantial expertise in recent years, Håvard continues.
In recent years, the Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron in the Norwegian Armed Forces Medical Services has evacuated more than 2,500 patients, thereby building significant experience in mass evacuation.