$1.2B medical complex will replace Landstuhl

$1.2B medical complex will replace Landstuhl

By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Jul 18, 2010 10:27:46 EDT

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — A $1.2 billion hospital complex is being planned near here to replace the aging Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, which is a 30-minute drive from where the C-17s and KC-15s carrying wounded combat troops land.

Since 2003, Air Force aeromedical evacuation teams have flown more than 65,000 wounded Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen from Afghanistan and Iraq to Germany for medical care.

The hospital, scheduled to be complete by 2018, will be at the U.S.-controlled Rhine Ordnance Barracks, adjacent to Ramstein. It will replace the base clinic as well as Landstuhl.

Putting a hospital closer to the flight line will make it easier on the troops and those caring for them, said Lt. Col. Bonnie Goodale, administrator for the 86th Contingency Air Staging Facility.

“It’s still in the planning phase, but we hope cutting down the time for that drive will make it easier on the troops that come through here,” Goodale said as she walked through the contingency aeromedical staging facility, an old education and training building near the flight line where the less seriously injured get basic medical care and a little attention before getting on a plane for home.
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Medical complex will replace Landstuhl