Over the last eight months, we've partnered with Bunzl Healthcare and Ukraine Medical Association to routinely deliver medical supplies to hospitals across Ukraine. Teams in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa, Mykolayiv, and Lviv have received twelve deliveries, in excess of 273 tonnes of supplies. The latest of those deliveries arrived in Odessa on Tuesday 5th October 2022. The next delivery is due to depart at the end of November and will transport vital supplies to newly liberated Kherson and Odessa.
Working with Ukraine Medical Association
In response to direct requests from Ukrainian doctors, we worked with the Ukrainian doctors’ union (Ukraine Medical Association) and the British Red Cross to identify needs in war-hit hospitals, while gathering 14 truck-loads, including £3-million-worth pallets of vital kit and supplies from across the our national network of 53 hospitals.
Ventilators, crutches, walking frames, respiratory masks, scrubs, bandages, wound kits, operating tables, and other medical supplies have been stock-piled from our hospitals across the country and delivered directly to the doors of hospitals covering North, South, East, and West Ukraine. Upon receipt of the urgent supplies, the hospitals distribute a portion to local community hospitals in a hub-and-spoke model.
We've launched an urgent appeal
The appeal is for medical supplies for Ukraine hospitals treating the sick and injured, warning that they face running out of vital items such as bandages and defibrillators within weeks without donations. The crisis has seen hospitals in Ukraine pushed to breaking point, with supply chains and buildings decimated. Doctors on the ground have been appealing for urgent assistance, and our hospital network has come to their aid.
Boris visited the Enfield warehouse where supplies are gathered from Circle hospitals with the Ukrainian Ambassador to see first-hand the logistics of transporting hospital kit in bulk across Europe by lorry. He was briefed by Ukrainian doctors helping to co-ordinate relief efforts and helped to load the latest lorry with hospital beds and anaesthetic machines. Speaking after the visit, he called on people to give generously to the appeal.
Professor Rostyslav Smachylo is a specialist hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgeon from Kharkiv in the East of Ukraine. He explains the urgent need for continued support: ‘We are seeing increasing numbers of elderly people who stayed in the city but have been injured as a result of the violence taking place around them. We lack a lot of equipment needed to cope with the volume of patients we are seeing with particularly complex injuries and conditions. The hospital has also seen windows blown out and structural damage. Knowing that we have allies in Britain and the support of the British stiffens our resolve – we are incredibly grateful, and we ask that you don't forget us.’
