Далалық аурухана: Құрылымы, мақсаты және қолданылуы

Temporary hospital or mobile medical unit that handles on site casualties

A field hospital is a temporary hospital or mobile medical unit that takes care of casualties on site before they can be safely transported to more permanent facilities. This term was initially used in military medicine (such as the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital or MASH), but it has also been used to describe alternate care sites used in disasters and other emergency situations. A field hospital is a medical staff with a mobile medical kit and, often, a wide tent like shelter (at times an inflatable structure in modern usage) so that it can be readily set up near the source of casualties. In an urban environment, the field hospital is often established in an easily accessible and highly visible building (such as restaurants, schools, hotels and so on). In the case of an airborne structure, the mobile medical kit is often placed in a normalized container; the container itself is then used as shelter. A field hospital is generally larger than a temporary aid station but smaller than a permanent military hospital. International humanitarian law such as the Geneva Conventions include prohibitions on attacking doctors, ambulances, hospital ships, or field hospitals buildings displaying a Red Cross, a Red Crescent or other emblem related to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement; deliberately attacking or otherwise causing harm on these health facilities (especially during warfare or armed conflicts) may constitute a war crime. Field hospitals are also prevalent in the event of disease outbreaks and pandemics. The most recent pandemic, COVID 19, has led to the establishment of field hospitals in many parts of the world, especially in the developing world.

The Namibian Defence Force operates a mobile field hospital through its Defence Health Services Directorate. It was donated by the German government to Namibia in March 2013. Initially it was a UN level two hospital but has now been upgraded to level one. The field hospital is containerized in tents, it has capacity to treat forty outpatients per day and has an admission capacity of twenty patients. It has two intensive care units, laboratories, an X ray unit and a mobile oxygen concentrator. The dental department can treat 20 and four operations can be carried out daily. It has its own mobile logistics support wing consisting of kitchens, water purifiers, water tanks, toilet and shower containers, generators and sewage and refuse disposal facilities. During the COVID 19 pandemic the hospital was deployed to Hosea Kutako International Airport to aid the country's response.

In the United States Army Medical Department, the term "field hospital" is used as a generic term for a deployable medical facility. However, from 1906 to the present, with small interruptions, the department has had specific organized units called "Field Hospitals." These numbered units, for example the 10th Field Hospital have specific tables of organization and equipment, capabilities, and doctrine for their employment, all of which have varied over time. Readers should take care not to confuse the generic American field hospital with a specific numbered XXth Field Hospital, as the two cannot be used interchangeably. An Evacuation Hospital, a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH), a Combat support hospital (CSH), a Field Hospital and a numbered General Hospital are all field hospitals—but a MASH, CSH, a General Hospital or a Field Hospital are not interchangeable. In the United States Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED), the counterpart to the Army's "field hospital" is known as an "Expeditionary Medical Facility" (EMF). The EMF is principally focused on support to Marines during expeditionary amphibious operations ashore, the Marine Corps having no medical personnel of their own and relying on the Navy for medical support. EMFs will also support Navy Construction Battalions (SeaBees) ashore. While the Navy has a small number of dedicated hospital ships and larger combatant vessels such as aircraft carriers and large deck amphibious assault ships have robust medical facilities, the utility of those afloat platforms decreases the further inland that the Marines progress. A smaller and more mobile version of the EMF is the Expeditionary Medical Unit (EMU).

During the COVID 19 pandemic, the Swiss Armed Forces were mobilised to support civil hospitals in Switzerland. Similar measures were taken in other countries.