NavMed worries over future cuts

The Navy’s push for a more lethal force, and a 355-ship fleet, could be re-invested from reductions to the service’s medical professionals, USNI News reports after viewing command guidance from the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. BUMED “expects” that a Pentagon plan will reduce the military medical personnel across all services, possibly as early as FY 2020, according to the guidance. The guidance explains that Defense Department (DoD) officials are considering military medical reductions as part of its Program Objective Memorandum (POM) 2020. Each service is to manage their own reductions. “We expect many of the billet cuts” to Navy Medicine (NavMed) and to be “re-invested in other Navy priorities and communities that increase lethality,” the guidance stated. The number of billet cuts being consideration is not known. NavMed has about 63,000 personnel around the world to active duty sailors and Marines, their families and veterans, according to the Navy. The potential of NavMed cuts comes at a time that ‘Big Navy’ leadership is talking about growing the force. Through FY-18, the Navy had 329,851 active duty personnel, according to DoD. It is authorized to have 335,400. The Navy is planning to expand its surface force to 355 ships, which will call for more sailors. “This is what the POM process is for – to review all accounts in determining the best balance of investments,” Navy spokesperson Lt. Lauren Chatmas told USNI News. NavMed leaders expect that potential funding cuts will reduce medical staff capabilities – like expeditionary medical facilities, Graduate Medical Education, and medical training programs – and the scope of services available at facilities, ashore and afloat, across the service, according to the guidance. NavMed plans to fight over those GME and medical training programs. The Navy is months away from finalizing its contribution to DoD’s POM-20. (Source: USNI News 11/30/18) Gulf Coast Note: Regional NavMed facilities include Naval Hospital Pensacola, Fla., and its branch clinics at Meridian and Gulfport, Miss.; New Orleans; Pensacola, Milton, and Panama City, Fla. NHP's GME program for Family Medicine residents was shut down nearly two years ago.