Medical Care in Arabia

I recently (August) left active service in the Naval Medical Corps after six years as a surgeon. My colleagues from my last hospital are now all deployed on the hospital ship and at various hospitals in Saudi Arabia. I write them often. In return, I have received letter after letter describing the poor preparedness and absolute “idiocy” permeating the medical operations. The credibility of the surgeons writing is unquestionable.

They speak of an inept supply status that caused surgical activity to cease after performing several hernia repairs at a Marine hospital in Saudi Arabia. The suture material provided for major vascular injuries is never used in civilian hospitals due to its poor results. The concerns of the surgeons on the ground are stonewalled by “supervising” battalion surgeons who don’t practice medicine. Surgeons investigated by Naval Hospital Quality Assurance are now in charge of running trauma surgery and resuscitation. Those, who are fellowship-trained in trauma or experienced from Grenada and Beirut, are ignored. Morale is nonexistent.

Most of us who leave military medicine do so because of an inability to change the “business as usual,” ineffectual and dangerous way health care is delivered.

With 240,000 young American soldiers on the ground, I am fearful for them and their parents. I am concerned about the ill-equipped and poorly led surgeons who will care for their injuries.

I write this letter at the direct request of those who, for obvious reasons, cannot.

STEPHEN F. McCARTNEY, MD

Santa Monica