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The
Health Care Personnel Delivery System (HCPDS) is a standby
plan developed for the Selective Service System at the request
of Congress. If needed it would be used to draft health care
personnel in a crisis. It is designed to be implemented in
connection with a national mobilization in an emergency, and
then only if Congress and the President approve the plan and
pass and sign legislation to enact it. No portion of the plan
is designed for implementation in peacetime. If implemented,
HCPDS would:
Provide
a fair and equitable draft of doctors, nurses, medical technicians
and those with certain other health care skills if, in some
future emergency, the military’s existing medical capability
proved insufficient and there is a shortage of volunteers.
Include
women, unless directed otherwise by Congress and the President.
Draft
a very small percentage of America’s health care providers
into military service. Impact on the availability of civilian
health care would be minimal. Those health-care workers whose
absence would seriously hurt their communities would be deferred
on the basis of community essentiality.
Begin
a mass registration of male and female health care workers
between the ages of 20 and 45. They would register at local
post offices. HCPDS would provide medical personnel from a
pool of 3.4 million doctors, nurses, specialists and allied
health professionals in more than 60 fields of medicine.
Require
minimal training for HCPDS draftees, because they are already
skilled personnel.
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