If a Soldier Falls Ill… – Reporting from Kosovo

Szöveg: László Szűcs | 2012. június 2. 6:04

In a military mission abroad, far away from Hungary, the provision of medical care for the troops is one of the most important tasks. Based in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, the HDF KFOR contingent has a well-equipped medical center for this purpose, where Portuguese soldiers work together with the Hungarians.

The medical center of the HDF KFOR Contingent keeps consulting hours every day, although luckily, it is only on rare occasions that the medical staff serving here – one doctor, three assistants, one warehouseman and the ambulance drivers – is requested to provide professional care. The Hungarians and the Portuguese medical staffs are co-located in the same container complex which accommodates the ward and offices of the medical center. Each medical staff is responsible for giving treatment to the soldiers of its respective contingent – provided that the need arises.

The medical center of Camp Slim Lines is suitable for ROLE-1 level medical treatment, which means that here the full scale of basic-level occupational health services are available for the Hungarian soldiers, Maj. (Med.) Dr. János Nemes told us.

The commandant of the center told us that the medical ward is very well equipped with all types of necessary medical devices and is suitable for diagnosing and providing treatment for almost all kinds of diseases. Nevertheless, should the staff encounter some case requiring specialist assistance, they would transport the Hungarian patients to the German field hospital which operates in Prizren, Southern Kosovo, where they can receive the highest-level ROLE-3 medical treatment. Because the Pristina military base has no dentist’s office, dental patients are transported to Prizren too, the doctor of the Hungarian contingent added.

Doctor Nemes told us that fortunately, the more serious diseases occur very rarely among the troops of the contingent, thanks to the thorough medical pre-deployment aptitude test for the personnel. Of course, the seasonal illnesses – mostly the infections of the respiratory tract – have occurred, but these have been easy to treat. In addition, so far the medical staffs have had to treat only a small number of injuries, all of which resulted from training or sporting activities. Fortunately, none of these was really serious, so no soldiers had to be returned home because of them from the area of operations.

The staff members of the medical center have a very important task, which is to provide medical cover for the operations conducted by the soldiers serving with the Hungarian infantry company of the joint Portuguese–Hungarian KFOR Tactical Reserve Maneuver Battalion (KTM). This means that the staff of medical specialists, led by the doctor, has to accompany the Hungarian peacekeepers on all missions outside the camp, Maj. Dr. János Nemes told us. He informed us that the cooperation between the Hungarian and Portuguese troops is excellent in the field of military medicine too.