Pima
10-Year Member
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2007
- Messages
- 13,900
My B and G officer was talking about how the military wants more leaders in military hospitals so less focus on engineering and technical courses would help that imo.
No flaming please. I get what you are saying, but the Navy and the AF are night and day when it comes to how they operate in the AD world.
For the AF they are outsourcing more and more with every year when it comes to the medical field. Caveat: flight docs.
Here is my anecdotal info as a military wife, and now a military mom.
1988: Married Bullet (flier)
1989: Pregnant with DS1. Saw OB/GYN on base. Gave birth to our son on base in the Maternity wing
1989-1992: Need tylenol, cough meds, Maalox, anything over the counter...go to the pharmacy and stock up.
1991/2: Pregnant with DD. Same as DS1. Considered high risk because I am RH negative.
1993/94: Pregnant with DS2. Kicked off base, because I was a dependent and now considered higher risk because DD was born in 47 minutes and RH negative. Only AD members were seen. Reduction In Forces (RIF) was big.
1993: No more free over the counter anything. You need baby tylenol, go to the BX. JMPO, RIF.
1998: ERs at most bases are gone. Maternity wards...Gone! Surgeries...Gone! Note: I said MOST
2002: DS1 breaks his arm. Sent to county hospital. Nearest base was Quantico. They no longer cast, they send you to the hospital. Cast was set the next day at Ft. Belvoir, 1 of the largest hospitals in our system. The doc was not military. Contracted. Same with the doc that removed his cast.
2005: Move to SJAFB. New neighbor a month later. A dentist. He was contracted. not military. at the pharmacy they now ask if you have secondary health insurance for billing purposes.
2007: DD bit by a copperhead snake. Sent to the county hospital because again the base hospital shuts down at 4:30.
2008: Retire. Only Bullet can use military doc/hospitals. We are told no room at the inn for his dependents.
2014: DS marries. He is a rated officer. His wife is told that unlike my family eons ago, she can't see the flight doc. She must go a different route.
I can't remember when Aglagles's DD commissioned via AFROTC as a nurse. I think it was 13, maybe 14. She was told the 1st week of training at San Antonio that the majority of them would be gone in a few short years.
I know, I know. I am Janie Raincloud. I don't do this with any malicious intent. I do it to illustrate, that as we live with the never ending budget cuts due to sequestrestration within the AF, the adage that it is usually cheaper to rent than to buy. Contracting in the medical world equates to renting.