A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #36-25 - Hospitals Go to War. Militarized Healthcare in Italy, France, and Germany (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

"When those in power speak of peace, ordinary people know there will be 
war. When those in power curse war, the draft cards are already filled." 
- Bertolt Brecht ---- Following France and Germany, Italy is also 
preparing hospitals for war. A special decree (implementing Legislative 
Decree 134/2004, which in turn implements European Directive 2022/2557) 
has established a permanent committee of ten members at the Ministry of 
Health. The committee will meet periodically to define a national 
healthcare response strategy in the event of war. The plan calls for 
coordinating preparedness for large-scale healthcare emergencies, in 
view of hypothetical scenarios of generalized war in Europe, including 
scenarios involving CRBN (chemical, radiological, biological, and 
nuclear) events. The plan integrates with European directives and NATO 
Treaty obligations, particularly in the event of Articles 3 and 5 being 
triggered (Article 5 provides for mutual defense in the event of 
aggression against a Member State).

The plan, which should be developed in three phases: relocation to 
civilian and military hospitals, return, and rehabilitation of recovered 
soldiers, still has several unresolved issues, starting with defining 
the roles and responsibilities of ministries, regions, civil protection, 
defense, and local civilian and military authorities.

The list goes on, detailing how to strengthen collaboration between 
civilian healthcare and military doctors, how to define chains of 
command in extreme situations, how to implement joint training exercises 
and training programs to prepare personnel to deal with war trauma and 
major evacuations, how connections with field hospitals and external 
facilities should be established (there are talks of establishing 
medical stations near ports and airports to facilitate the care and 
subsequent repatriation of the wounded), as well as how and where to 
find extraordinary funding and infrastructure upgrades, anti-bomb 
systems, CRBN units, mobile units, etc.

Numerous issues remain, and precisely on these issues, positions have 
begun to emerge that, rather than rejecting this project, are giving 
rise to proposals that legitimize criminal and warmongering plans.

What clearly emerges, also based on what Germany and France have already 
implemented, is summarized in the French wartime healthcare plan, which 
redefines the very concept of a civilian hospital, no longer a place of 
care, but also a "strategic national security infrastructure."

For years, public healthcare has faced a constant assault on 
increasingly savage privatization. For years, funding, beds, and 
healthcare personnel have been cut. Instead of truly strengthening the 
severely ailing healthcare system, calls are being made for the need to 
prepare wartime hospitals, militarize healthcare workers, and develop 
protocols for global conflict scenarios.

What's behind the preventative militarization of European healthcare 
facilities?

It's not about preparing to manage potential healthcare emergencies; the 
truth is that we are facing future wars waged by imperialist powers 
intent on defending their interests, threatened by the growing crisis of 
the capitalist system, unloading war, misery, and oppression onto 
workers, men and women, and the peoples of the world.

Epidemics, natural disasters, and environmental disasters are directly 
the product of the destructive power of this economic system, whose sole 
purpose is the pursuit of profit, which is directed against the needs 
and lives of the masses, against society, and against the environment.

The imperialists have always torn up their own laws; for example, 
Article 5 of NATO, which is now being used to militarize European 
healthcare systems, was violated to justify the war in Yugoslavia in 1990.

Faced with the growing militarization increasingly affecting sectors 
such as schools, transportation, and healthcare, a sign not only of a 
tendency toward war but also of a coercive attempt to recruit sectors of 
workers to the logic of war, the path forward has already been 
indicated: join those who are currently developing mobilization, 
organization, and forms of solidarity against exploitation, oppression, 
and repression.

Gina De Angeli, retired healthcare worker

https://umanitanova.org/lospedale-va-alla-guerra-sanita-militarizzata-in-italia-francia-e-germania/
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