As a former military surgeon, caring for retirees and their families was a huge part of my practice. In fact, I credit that as being hugely important to ensuring that the skills I learned in surgical training weren't lost, because I was able to do more complex cases that I wouldn't have been able to necessarily do had our population been limited to active duty personnel.
For whatever reason, the powers that be in military medicine are focusing more and more on just the deployment role of their physicians. Physicians, particularly surgeons, have always been on a tight deployment schedules which disrupts their practice at the MTF and, in many cases, results in limited use of their skills. In my role as a forward deployed surgeon, my situation was unique in that we happened to be positioned at a forward hospital in a more isolated but very kinetic area. In six months, we cared for over 400 patients and performed over 150 major trauma cases. There were surgeons in our company that didn't operate at all in that seven months. Surgeons, in particular, have vocally complained that their skills withered while on active duty because they weren't getting enough cases, particularly complex cases. Military medicines response has been, well we'll just rotate docs through trauma centers, and we'll trim the service down to just those providers who will actively deploy, which only serves to undercut the complaints of their providers.
Additionally, like at Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune where I was stationed, the hospital provides a much needed outpatient and inpatient service to the retirees in the area who have no VA facility within a reasonable drive. Taking away that resource will only result in more delayed care and poorer outcomes. I think back to all the retirees I treated in my career an this makes me so angry. This is an outrageous move which will hurt retirees and only weaken military medicine
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