01.11.2024 Investigations

Loss of professional combat medics and chaos in evacuating the wounded

Міноборони оприлюднило контракти на харчування для армії: яйця по 8-9 грн за штуку - Главком

Soldier Anton Shevchuk paid the price for telling the truth: after he publicly drew attention to the poor quality of turnstiles in the 82nd Airborne Brigade, he was transferred to a lower position in another unit and his personal home was searched. This was the result of his refusal to keep silent about the problem.

Criticism that is unacceptable for the leadership?

According to sources, Minister Natalia Kalmykova and Director of the Healthcare Department of the Ministry of Defense Oksana Sukhorukova are harshly pursuing any criticism of their “procurement”. Accusations of lobbying controlled companies for kickbacks are ignored, and critics face persecution instead of dialogue or solutions. The impression is that the safety of defense lawyers is not in the first place if it affects the business interests of high-ranking officials.

Against this backdrop, Sukhorukova, under Kalmykova’s patronage, is promoting new dubious standards of military medicine, which are being implemented with numerous violations and seemingly without taking into account the critical needs of our defenders.

  1. Are the standards well thought out?

The procedure for developing the standards was not properly organized. Instead of a thorough development of medical protocols for our military, they simply “approved” unworked instructions that lead to outright shortcomings in medical care.

  1. Access to narcotic drugs without proper control

Another explosive fact is that the new standard allows combat medics to possess and use narcotic drugs such as fentanyl, demidrol, panephrine (adrenaline), sibozone, and ketamine. Without proper education and control, this can lead to large-scale abuse and trafficking of drugs among the military.

  1. Questionable changes in the equipment of first aid kits

The nasopharyngeal tube, a device that can save lives in case of penetrating wounds, was removed from the combat kit. Antibiotics and paracetamol were added, but only Western-made ones, effectively excluding Ukrainian producers from the medical supplies market.

Turnstiles, certification, and quality control

Tourniquets, like other medical products, must be certified. But today, it is mostly imported products that receive this certification, which makes it even more difficult for Ukrainian manufacturers to supply our army. Sukhorukova and Kalmykova are pushing for exorbitant requirements for domestic companies to obtain the US TCCC certificate. This has consequences not only for combat medics and soldiers on the front line, but also for the country’s economy as a whole.

In this situation, the Ukrainian military may receive low-quality or too expensive medical supplies, and domestic tactical medicine manufacturers will be forced to close their enterprises.

In addition, according to Sukhorukova and Kalmykova, combat medics should be able to do everything: provide care to pregnant women, children and the elderly. That is, to perform tasks that should be within the competence of specialized doctors.

Along with this, there is another problem: sending civilian doctors to the front.

Now combat medics with experience find themselves outside their units, where they are replaced by civilian doctors working in evacuation or at stabilization centers. This situation only worsens the chances of timely assistance and endangers the lives of soldiers at the front. After all, military medicine requires not only knowledge of protocols, but also combat training and understanding of the specifics of working in the trenches and on the battlefield.

And although additional resources on the front line are important in today’s conditions, professional doctors should still remain in hospitals, where they are needed to perform complex operations.

Unclear innovations in military medicine initiated by Sukhorukova, Kalmykova and their associates contribute to non-transparent schemes, endangering the lives of the military. Therefore, we draw the attention of all levels of government to the problems that have arisen and demand that urgent measures be taken.

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