Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz announced the move on Monday and said Col. Dr. Mariusz Kiszka will lead the formation.
“We are establishing the medical force so we can develop the whole field of battlefield medicine and the skills of our personnel, both soldiers and civilians,” he told reporters at the 6th Airborne Brigade garrison.
Photo: PAP/Łukasz Gągulski
Kiszka, an experienced clinician, has been the deputy commander for medical affairs at the 4th Military Clinical Hospital with Polyclinic in Wrocław, an independent public healthcare institution.
He is a graduate of the former Military Medical Academy in Łódź, and an expert in ear, nose and throat diseases.
Kosiniak-Kamysz said the new command will draw directly on lessons from Russia’s war against Ukraine and will coordinate closely with Poland’s civilian health sector under the lead role of the Military Health Service.
He listed priorities that include building medical coverage nationwide, aligning regions with Poland’s administrative map, restoring a military medical university in Łódź, raising qualifications, and consolidating efforts across institutions.
The command is headquartered at the Kraków base of the 6th Airborne Brigade, an elite airborne unit, which the minister said reflects the city’s concentration of key units, including special forces, and a substantial medical base such as the 5th Military Clinical Hospital and local medical schools.
The minister also reaffirmed plans for a "medical legion," a civilian reserve on the model of the Defence Ministry’s Cyber Legion, which prepares civilian cybersecurity experts to work with the Polish Cyber Defence Force without having to enlist.
Training for medical legion members will be funded by the state, and personnel will be classified by skills so they can be deployed where they are most useful during a crisis.
As the minister put it, a top surgeon should not be sent to the front line but kept where operating-room skills save lives.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP