The largest U.S. Department of Defense hospital abroad is pausing its labor and delivery services until further notice to focus on the needs of the conflict across the Middle East.<\/p>\n
The Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, located near Ramstein Air Base in Germany, is temporarily referring some labor and delivery patients to other hospitals within the local community, hospital officials told Military Times on Thursday. <\/p>\n
The medical center sent a notice about the halt in those services to Landstuhl patients through a Tuesday memorandum that circulated on the unofficial Air Force amn\/nco\/snco Facebook<\/a> page. <\/p>\n \u201cOur staff is in direct contact with impacted patients to provide additional information and facilitate a smooth transition to our healthcare partners,\u201d center officials told Military Times in a statement.<\/p>\n The memo states that the closure of labor and delivery is due to the hospital\u2019s \u201cprimary objective.\u201d<\/p>\n Although the memo doesn\u2019t elaborate on what that objective is, the hospital\u2019s primary role in critical combat care<\/a> is to treat patients that are injured during training or combat operations throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle East, according to the hospital\u2019s website.<\/p>\n During the ongoing U.S. military operations in Iran, the hospital is expected to continue its role in combat care.<\/p>\n Six U.S. service members<\/a> were killed in an attack by Iran on Sunday in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait. Others have been listed as \u201cseriously wounded\u201d<\/a> by U.S. Central Command as Iran continues to strike U.S. military installations across the Middle East following the joint U.S.-Israeli attack.<\/p>\n CENTCOM said Monday that 18 troops were wounded<\/a> thus far, a large increase from the five reported over the weekend.<\/p>\n Officials did not detail the extent of the injuries or whether the wounded service members were taken to any military hospitals in Germany or the U.S.<\/p>\n Landstuhl is the largest American medical facility outside the U.S., the only American College of Surgeons-verified level II trauma center overseas and the only U.S. trauma center associated with a foreign trauma network, according to a 2023 U.S. Army release<\/a> on the center\u2019s 70th anniversary.<\/p>\n The hospital will continue to see labor and delivery patients for prenatal appointments until 36 weeks, according to the memo, and patients that are further along than 36 weeks are urged to contact the hospital about what steps to take next.<\/p>\n