Pentagon and Congress Argue Over Landstuhl Regional Medical Center

Pentagon and Congress Argue Over Hospital for Troops
By THOM SHANKER
Published: June 10, 2012

WASHINGTON — As the Pentagon and Congress argue over how to shrink the military to fit smaller federal budgets, no debate over matching money to mission is more heartfelt than the order to shut down the premier overseas hospital for grievously wounded troops and replace it with a new one.

With scant public notice, the Defense Department is closing, and relocating, the aging hospital, the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, the only top-level military trauma center outside the United States.

The hospital has earned its vaunted reputation over the past decade as it has evacuated, treated and stabilized all American military personnel wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq. It treats 500,000 patients a year.

There is no dispute that replacing the hospital, which opened 59 years ago, is a good idea. And building its replacement next to Ramstein Air Base in Germany would reduce transit time for patients. Additional savings would be found by closing Ramstein’s existing clinic and combining it with the Landstuhl replacement.
read more here