STANAG 2128

STANAG 2128 medical and dental supply procedures

National medical authorities and the suppliers who provide medical and dental materiel into a NATO nation's stock under a defence contract

STANAG 2128 is NATO's agreement by which member nations commit to adopt AMedP-1.12, the publication covering exchange, labelling and marking of medical and dental supplies.

Edition: 6
Published: 2014-01-21

What it is

The agreement, not the specification

STANAG 2128 is not itself a technical specification. It is the NATO Standardization Agreement by which member nations commit to implement one: "the enclosed NATO Standardization Agreement (STANAG), which has been ratified by member nations, as reflected in the NATO Standardization Document Database (NSDD), is promulgated herewith." The standard it covers is AMedP-1.12, the Allied Medical Publication that actually sets out the exchange, labelling and marking procedures for medical and dental supply. This page covers the agreement; the substantive requirements live on the AMedP-1.12 page.

What nations agree to adopt

The STANAG exists "to facilitate the necessary cross-servicing amongst the Medical Services of the NATO nations", built on standardizing three things: procedures for exchanging non-expendable medical and dental property between nations, the information required on medical and dental supplies and pharmaceuticals, and a method of identifying the contents of syrettes, packages and self-injection devices. Participating nations then agree to adopt, for their own Medical Services, standardized procedures for exchanging non-expendable equipment that accompanies a patient during evacuation from the battlefield to a medical or dental facility, the metric system for dosage information on supply labels, and a standardized way of identifying self-injection device contents. The document names these as the subjects to be standardized rather than spelling out the procedures, units or identification scheme themselves - that detail is AMedP-1.12's, not this cover's.

How it comes to bind

Ratification and implementation are two separate national decisions, and this STANAG is where they are recorded: "the national decisions regarding the ratification and implementation of this STANAG are provided to the NSA," which holds them in the NSDD. A nation can ratify without having fully implemented, which is why the document separately asks nations to "examine their ratification... and, if they have not already done so, advise the NSA of their intention regarding its implementation." Once ratified, the standard is "effective upon receipt and ready to be used by the implementing nations and NATO bodies." Partner nations are handled differently: they are "invited to adopt this STANAG" rather than asked to ratify it. For anyone outside a nation's own Medical Services, the practical trigger is a national specification or a defence contract that names AMedP-1.12 or STANAG 2128, not the STANAG's existence in NATO's catalogue.

Current edition and review

This is edition 6, dated 21 January 2014, superseding "STANAG 2128, Edition 5, dated 9 June 2009." The document is to be reviewed at least once every three years, with the outcome recorded in the NSDD. It is a NATO non-classified document, issued free of charge; NATO does not sell it and neither do we.

Reporting implementation

Nations report their effective implementation using the form in Annex H to AAP-03(J); partner nations use Annex G to the same publication. Beyond that reporting cycle and the three-year review, the document says nothing about how a supplier's own compliance with AMedP-1.12's procedures is checked once a nation has ratified.

How we help

STANAG 2128 is the agreement, not the working document, so there is nothing in it for a supplier to implement directly beyond recognising that AMedP-1.12 is the specification a national contract or tender is really pointing at when it cites this STANAG. Where an organisation supplies medical or dental materiel into a NATO nation's stock, ComplyTrain is the place to document and evidence the procedures AMedP-1.12 actually requires: the exchange procedure, the labelling work instruction, and the training records showing staff follow them. ComplyTrain can also hold the record of when this agreement's three-year review last fell due, alongside the rest of a contract's standards.

What ComplyTrain does not do: it does not ratify a STANAG on a nation's behalf, decide what a customer's contract means by citing it, or carry out the physical exchange, labelling or marking work that AMedP-1.12 describes. What applies to a given contract is set by the customer's own quality clause, not by this page; the standards explorer shows what else sits alongside STANAG 2128 and AMedP-1.12, and we are glad to talk through what a specific tasking is asking for.

Standards it references

STANAG 2939Background

Questions

Is STANAG 2128 mandatory?

It binds a nation once that nation has ratified it; the document itself states it is "effective upon receipt" for an implementing nation. Whether it reaches a given supplier depends on whether a national specification or defence contract calls up AMedP-1.12 or this STANAG, not on the agreement's existence in NATO's catalogue.

What is the difference between STANAG 2128 and AMedP-1.12?

STANAG 2128 is the agreement by which nations commit to implement AMedP-1.12. AMedP-1.12 is the publication that actually sets out the exchange, labelling and marking procedures for medical and dental supplies. A nation ratifies the STANAG; the working requirements sit in the AMedP.

Can a company be "STANAG 2128 certified"?

No. The document names no certification body, accreditation scheme or assessment cycle. What it describes is nations reporting their own ratification and implementation status to NATO, which is a national process, not a certification a company can hold.

What edition is current, and what did it replace?

Edition 6, dated 21 January 2014. It supersedes Edition 5, dated 9 June 2009.