AIFA to Have Military Center for Aerospace Medicine

With the inauguration of the new Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA), the Ministry of National Defense (SEDENA) begins to plan a Military Center for Aerospace Medicine at the Santa Lucia Military Base, reported El Economista.

Part of the AIFA project included the relocation of the Santa Lucia Military Base, which has a control tower for military operations, an auditorium, dining room, a military passenger terminal, air surveillance squadrons, a weather station, a rescue and firefighting service, as well as administrative and sports facilities. Following the example of fellow regional countries Chile, Argentina and Brazil, SEDENA wants to grow the base for which it has asked the Ministry of Finance for a MX$593.3 million (US$30 million) budget to build a Military Center for Aerospace Medicine.

The Santa Lucia Military Center is also expected to have a Military Hospital. It will be a type A hospital, with second level medical care and built on an area of 5.10ha with a grand total of 19,810.00m2 of construction, which will be distributed on the ground floor and upper floor with areas of 8,422.4 m2 and 7,853.36 m2, respectively, and 3,534.60 in complementary buildings, according to AIFA’s official website.

The Military Hospital will provide outpatient service with 13 medical offices and six dental offices, as well as psychology and nutrition. Specialized service will also be provided to the personnel of the Mexican Air Force with five aerospace medicine offices. There will be a hospitalization service with 50 beds and 39 non-census beds distributed in the different areas of the hospital. At emergencies there are three consulting rooms and two shock rooms, as well as an observation area for men, women and pediatrics, including an emergency mater module. The hospital will have imaging services, clinical archives and modern laboratories and will be equipped with three high-end operating rooms with world-class technologies as part of the contribution of smart and sustainable hospitals.

To date, aerospace medicine for the Mexican air force is provided by the Department of Aeromedical Evaluation and Certification (DECAM) at the Central Military Hospital. However, SEDENA argues that due to the growth in operations, DECAM’s activities are surpassed to properly treat the staff of 1,252 fixed-wing and rotary-wing pilots, 3,062 paratroopers, 499 cadets from the Military Aviation School and 3,167 special forces personnel.