HONOLULU -- Commanding General, U.S. Army Medical Command (MEDCOM) and the 44th Army Surgeon General, Lt. Gen. Nadja West, along with Command Sgt. Maj. Gerald C. Ecker, MEDCOM senior enlisted advisor, visited Tripler Army Medical Center (TAMC) Aug. 23.
West met with the TAMC command team and toured the facilities before fielding questions at a town hall session in the Kyser auditorium at TAMC.
"Any time I can get out and about and see the great things our team is doing, it really makes my day," West remarked.
At the town hall, West answered a wide variety of questions regarding upcoming changes to military medicine and took suggestions from the TAMC medical professionals that do the job every day.
West echoed Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley's main focus of readiness, and it was evident that readiness was one of her main focuses as well when she was asked about the level of training and readiness for the noncommissioned officers (NCO) in MEDCOM.
West was asked about how deployed NCO's are expected to perform more critical medical tasks on the battlefield, but that when they re-deploy, they're not allowed to continue performing or training at the same level.
"That has truly been a major issue for me for quite some time. When I became the MEDCOM commander, I asked, 'Why can't we train our medics to this standard?' and I was told that it was policy," said West.
West then asked who made that policy and was told MEDCOM -- her command.
"I should be able to control that, at least, and that is something the medical community will be seeing very soon," West said. "Attending physicians can train residents, so why can't they train our medics to the same things they will be asked to do when deployed? It goes right back to readiness and training a completely ready force."
As The Army Surgeon General, West advises the Army Chief of Staff and the Secretary of the Army on all issues regarding military health care and is directly responsible for the creation of policy and the management of the Army health care system.
"We really have an engaged workforce here at Tripler," said West. "They are extremely in tune with what's going on. They ask really penetrating questions about what the future is for military and Army medicine and how they contribute to that. It's great to see such an engaged team."
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