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AMedP-2.3

AMedP-2.3 patient evacuation coordination cell tasks and responsibilities

Military medical staff who form and run a Patient Evacuation Coordination Cell within a deployed NATO headquarters

AMedP-2.3 sets out the tasks, organisation and training of a NATO Patient Evacuation Coordination Cell (PECC), the staff team that coordinates patient evacuation in a theatre of operations; it creates no obligation for a commercial supplier.

Edition
A
Published
2026-07

What it is

AMedP-2.3, Patient Evacuation Coordination Cell (PECC) Tasks and Responsibilities, is a NATO Allied Medical Publication covered by STANAG 6532. Edition A, Version 1, was promulgated in July 2026, and the document carries no earlier edition to supersede. Its subject is a single staff element: the PECC, "a dedicated team" inside a deployed headquarters that provides "a patient regulation function" - collating, analysing and presenting information so that a commander can decide how to respond to requests for patient evacuation. A PECC does not itself own or control the assets that move patients; it coordinates the evacuation assets, medical treatment facilities and staff sections that do.

The document's own Application clause states it "should be applied by all personnel, Allies and Partner nations engaged on NATO operations and activities." In substance, that is the military medical staff who compose a PECC, and the nations and headquarters that decide whether and how to form one, including a national PECC element attached to a national support element - not a commercial supplier, manufacturer or contractor.

How it binds

AMedP-2.3 is covered by STANAG 6532, "the agreement of nations to use this publication." A nation ratifies the STANAG and then applies AMedP-2.3 through its own deployed headquarters; the letter of promulgation states the publication "is effective upon receipt." That is a commitment between nations, not a duty a contract creates for a supplier, and it creates no obligation of its own for a company. A supplier is only drawn in indirectly, where a contract or tender for something a PECC depends on - patient movement software, communications and information systems, or PECC training - names it. Three nations recorded reservations at promulgation, on matters including continuous staffing, national restrictions on sharing patient records, and where the PECC role sits within a national command structure, which is itself evidence that ratifying nations still apply the publication with adaptations to their own doctrine and law.

What the document covers

AMedP-2.3 works through a PECC's composition (normally two or three staffed shifts, resourced for continuous coordination), where it sits in the command structure (usually part of the joint medical staff, physically close to the operations centre it supports), and its core responsibilities: managing the flow of patients through the evacuation chain, tracking individual patients as responsibility passes between PECCs, maintaining databases of the medical treatment facilities and evacuation assets in its area, coordinating with other PECCs, responding to evacuation requests, planning for mass-casualty events, and building working relationships with civilian healthcare providers. It also sets out what a PECC needs in personnel, training, communications and equipment to do this, and notes how the model varies for aeromedical, maritime, special forces, humanitarian and peacekeeping contexts.

The document is explicit about what it leaves to other publications: it "does not cover details of the function of patient evacuation control and the overall principles of command and control of MEDEVAC," pointing to AJMedP-2 instead. Consistent with that, this page does not set out evacuation categories, prioritisation criteria, response timelines or message formats - AMedP-2.3 itself refers to those elsewhere (in AJMedP-2, ATP-97 and STANAG 2542) rather than defining them here, and nothing on this page should be read as clinical or operational guidance. Anyone who needs that detail should go to the document itself and to their own national medical or operational authority.

How it is evaluated

AMedP-2.3 names no certification body, notified body or accredited scheme, and no organisation or product is certified against it. The only assessment it names is a medical evaluation of a PECC's own performance, for which it points to AMedP-1.6, noting that a PECC's procedures "may also be assessed along with the rest of the headquarters" it belongs to. That is an internal, operational evaluation of a military staff function, not a conformity scheme a company holds a certificate under.

Standards it references

AMedP-2.3 is covered by STANAG 6532, the NATO agreement recording the nations' commitment to use it. For the medical evacuation command-and-control detail it deliberately leaves out, it points to AJMedP-2, covered by STANAG 2546, and, for the medical rules of eligibility that shape patient flow decisions, to AJP-4.2. It names two message formats without reproducing them: an evacuation request format set out in ATP-97, and a patient movement request format that STANAG 2542 attaches to AJMedP-1. For assessing a PECC's own performance, it points to AMedP-1.6. None of these are presented as clauses a reader must separately satisfy; they are the surrounding doctrine AMedP-2.3 sits inside.

Getting the document

NATO publishes AMedP-2.3 free of charge through the NATO Standardization Document Database. We do not sell it or hold a copy for distribution; the NSDD listing for AMedP-2.3 is the source.

How we help

AMedP-2.3 sets tasks for a military staff cell inside a deployed headquarters, not for a company, and no scheme certifies an organisation against it. ComplyTrain does not coordinate a patient evacuation, decide where a patient is sent, or perform any part of a PECC's own staff function - that is worked out by trained personnel in an operations centre, not by software, and nothing here should be read as a claim otherwise.

Where this document's existence touches a ComplyTrain customer, it is usually one step removed: a company contracted to supply patient movement software, CIS equipment, or PECC training has its own quality clause or tender requirement to evidence. ComplyTrain helps that kind of supplier hold the documented procedures for how it delivers and supports the system or the training, keep training records for the people who deliver it, run internal audits and corrective actions, and produce the evidence trail a customer audit or contract review asks for.

What ComplyTrain does not do: coordinate patient evacuation, hold or process patient records, or certify an organisation against AMedP-2.3 - no such certification exists. Which standards in NATO's medical series bear on a given contract is set by that contract and the customer's own quality clause, not by us. See what sits alongside AMedP-2.3 in the standards explorer, and talk to us about what a specific tasking is actually asking your organisation to evidence.

Standards it references

Questions

Is AMedP-2.3 mandatory?

It binds through STANAG 6532, which NATO nations ratify - ratification and national implementation are separate steps, and several nations recorded reservations when this edition was promulgated. For a commercial supplier it creates no obligation directly: it addresses military medical staff and the nations that field them, not a supplier, manufacturer or contractor.

Is AMedP-2.3 a certification requirement?

No. It names no accredited certification body and no scheme for certifying an organisation against it. The only evaluation it describes is of a PECC's own operational performance, assessed as part of the headquarters it belongs to, not an audit of a company.

What is a Patient Evacuation Coordination Cell (PECC)?

A PECC is a dedicated military medical staff team inside a deployed headquarters that coordinates, rather than delivers, the evacuation of patients: it collates information and advises the commander so that evacuation assets and medical treatment facilities are used effectively. AMedP-2.3 covers its organisation, tasks and requirements.

What is the difference between AMedP-2.3 and AJMedP-2?

AJMedP-2 is the wider Allied Joint Doctrine for Medical Evacuation, covering the overall command-and-control principles of MEDEVAC. AMedP-2.3 is narrower: it defines the tasks, responsibilities, personnel and equipment of the PECC specifically, and says explicitly that it does not repeat the command-and-control detail AJMedP-2 already covers.

Does AMedP-2.3 create any obligation for a defence contractor?

Not directly. It addresses military medical staff and the nations that field a PECC, not a supplier, manufacturer or contractor role, and it names none of those anywhere in its text. A contractor's obligations come from its own contract, not from this publication.