abstract
| - The Cuerpo de Sanidad (Medical Corps) provides medical support for the Ejército Nacional. Army Medicine is almost entirely limited to the practice of military medicine (i.e. - treating battlefield casualties) in the theater of operations (TO). Outside the TO and all other fields of medicine, the Corps relies on the support of the civilian National Health Service. There are, however, vocal factions both in the NHS and the Army who want to change this arrangement. Some Army planners want a complete medical branch to make the Army autonomous, and some NHS leaders want exclusive purview over all aspects of military medicine. But while these voices are loud, they are a minority. The current, mostly amicable, working arrangement between the two medical organisations has existed over many years, and nothing is likely to change soon. One practical effect of the current arrangement is that Army Medical personnel usually have little to do in their chosen field of battlefield trauma unless there are soldiers actually engaging the enemy somewhere. Therefore, many Army Medical personnel are regularly assigned to NHS hospitals or clinics. When needed, these personnel are swiftly transferred to their pre-positioned equipment and deployed to the field as an Army Medical unit.
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