All NATO's eastern flank countries are reviewing crisis response protocols for medical facilities, organizing training exercises, purchasing helmets and body armor, and moving operating rooms underground.
This is written by Politico, reports UNN.
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All NATO's eastern flank countries are reviewing crisis response protocols for medical facilities, organizing training exercises, investing in ballistic helmets and vests, and moving operating rooms underground. Since then, the conflict in Ukraine has shattered the illusion that Europe is protected from war.
The publication notes that Russia's invasion of Ukraine has shown that modern conflicts no longer spare medical services - or the civilians they serve, and Eastern European countries are taking this into account.
Located just 50 kilometers from the EU's external border with Belarus, Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Clinics is developing underground infrastructure, shelters, helicopter landing sites and autonomous systems that will allow it to function even in the event of power or water outages.
In Estonia, in addition to body armor for ambulance crews, satellite phones will be issued to maintain communication in the event of traditional network failures. If necessary, it is even planned to create an independent Internet network.
Estonia is also purchasing mobile medical units - temporary treatment centers that can be deployed in emergencies - which should help solve the problem of limited intensive care capacity in Europe.
It is emphasized that even the best-prepared hospitals cannot function without medicines, supplies and equipment, and the Baltic countries are stocking up on supplies in preparation for mass casualties.
For example, Estonia has allocated 25 million euros for mass casualty supplies, including orthopedic equipment, tourniquets and trauma kits
In Latvia, healthcare facilities have been required to maintain a three-month supply of medicines since the Covid-19 pandemic, but the Baltic countries are located too close to the front line to ensure the safety of emergency supplies. As a result, other EU countries need to "identify things that are scarce, which are very difficult to organize, especially for small countries."
However, as the publication notes, labor shortages are a fundamental problem for the Baltic countries, where there is already a shortage of medical personnel performing daily duties. Estonia, with a population of 1.3 million, has almost half as many healthcare workers per capita as Germany.
Let us remind you
Improving the standard of living in Russia as a priority is already in the past. After three years of full-scale hostilities against Ukraine, war has become an ideology in the Russian Federation. Therefore, an attempt to "split" NATO and attempts to influence operations on the territory of the European continent are something abstract and different from reality.