A sense of togetherness: supporting Ukraine and beyond
The critical care team at The Royal London Hospital have spearheaded a successful project that sends vital medical equipment to struggling hospitals in Ukraine.
Richard Aldridge, lead technologist from adult critical care said:
“When I saw images of hospitals being bombed on the news, and people fleeing Ukraine because of the invasion, I thought that we as a Trust could assist by donating items that the public could not normally do.”
With the support from colleagues from The Royal London Hospital and other hospitals accross the group, high-value equipment was donated including 60 patient monitors, 17 ventilators and over 100 anaesthetic machines.
Most of the donated equipment was acquired by hospitals during the pandemic and was scheduled to be decommissioned, despite being fully functional. Now, thanks to the incredible efforts of the teams at The Royal London, that equipment is on its way to Ukrainian hospitals and many other hospitals are now getting involved in this donation project.
Malgorzata Starczewska, consultant in intensive care medicine and anaesthesia said:
"We were overwhelmed by their preparedness to help and generosity offered.
“One of the best things I find about working at Barts Health is this sense of togetherness we host.
“I think our working ethos is centred around delivering best care and getting the job done, no matter what the circumstances are. I think that it is phenomenal to see that this also extends beyond our organisation and collaboratively we were able to support those who need our help the most.”
The first delivery of kit was sent in early July and is now being distributed across hospitals in the regions of Lviv, Ivano-Frankovsk, Mukachevo and Uzhogrod. For those areas where equipment has arrived, it is already making a difference to caring for patients in Ukraine:
“For our medical team and patients, this is a significant contribution to the development of our hospitals during this difficult time for the country. Thank you"
This isn’t the first time we have supported countries going through hardship. In 2020 we donated a CT scanner to a Syrian charity and we continue to welcome refugees from across the world to our medical support worker programme.
The efforts, resourcefulness and generosity of those involved in these projects shows the importance of the health service throughout the world. Thank you to all those involved.
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