On the 23rd September 2024 Sunflower Scotland made a delivery of valuable medical equipment and supplies to the hospital at Pershotravensk. Located only 50 km from Pokrovsk in the heart of Donbas, this hospital supports Ukraine’s most important defensive campaign of 2024.
Our sincere thanks to NHS Lothian for donating lots of high-value equipment to help Ukraine. They contacted us and asked if we knew hospitals in Ukraine that would benefit from it, and we said yes.
In summer, Russian invaders threw everything they had on Pokrovsk. It became clear that central Donbas and Dnipropetrovsk regions would be a hit by humanitarian crisis. Pershotravensk is the first town on the road leading from Pokrovsk to Dnipro. The writing was on the wall: this hospital was the first in line to receive (a) the wounded from the front line, and (b) refugees fleeing from the area.
We decided to take the Scottish medical aid to the Pershotravensk town hospital. At the time of writing, this area is 50 km from the front. The Russian forces are advancing by 0.5 miles every day like a deadly tide, cutting the distance shorter. It’s a scary inevitability of the disaster.
In August, we decided to visit the Pershotravensk hospital to see it with our own eyes and brought a full car of supplies. Oleg spoke with the director of the hospital. She said they were quickly scaling up the surgical wards and preparing to cope with the inflow of the wounded. They were cutting down all non-essential departments, to free up space for injuries, wounds, fractures and burns.
After returning to Edinburgh, we loaded a van with medical aid. Our team drove 2000 miles from Edinburgh all the way to Pershotravensk. When we arrived, things have changed. The hospital was surrounded by ambulances. We knew that we have arrived to the right place, and that our aid will be very necessary.
On 23 September, Sunflower Scotland delivered:
- Electric hoists (patients lift) with slings x 4
- Procedure plinth with electric drive x 1
- Wheelchairs x 6
- Overbed tables x 10
- Syringes and bandages x 6 boxes
- Medical tools x 2 boxes
Surgeons in Ukraine’s small hospitals struggle without good quality surgical tools. They still use some robust Soviet-era tools, which they re-sterilise. New tools come from China, but they aren’t liked due to their low quality. In big cities hospitals are well supplied, but in small towns surgeons struggle. Since we work directly with doctors, we know that.
We asked a few medical companies to help. Thankfully, Athodax Healthcare responded to our call and provided three boxes of high-quality surgical tools. Thank you so much!
Wheelchairs, walking aids and crutches are in high demand in the war zone. We are truly grateful to Archview Lodge Care Home in Dalkeith. They donated six wheelchairs and a few walking aids, which we took to Pershotravensk. It’s interesting (and sad) that some charities in west Ukraine have too many wheelchairs and they don’t accept any more donations. But in the east, where there are so many wounded soldiers, they always ask for wheelchairs.
We will be returning with more aid while the roads are still open. We thank the local Pershotravensk charity “Patriot” for the help with paperwork.
One final comment: you can see that we have delivered all the aid directly to where it is needed, and where it will be used. Nothing has disappeared. It’s all been received by the hospital. It’s hard work, quite tiring and possibly a bit dangerous. But people are waiting for us, and we will continue working and helping while we can.
We thank all our donors and supporters. We have lots of work in front of us, and we will need all your help going forward.
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