Inside the Western Ukrainian Specialized Children’s Medical Centre, in the city of L’viv, INTERSOS has started the emergency renovation and equipment of the basement
Patients and staff find refuge in this space [in the picture] when the sirens of the alarms announce the possibility of attacks on the city. The medical center welcomes oncological patients and patients with rare diseases, providing specialized medical treatment and palliative care. At this time, the Western Ukrainian Specialized Children’s Medical Centre in L’viv is the only one to guarantee this service throughout Ukraine, receiving every day patients evacuated from other regions. For this reason, its way of functioning has also profoundly changed: from long hospital stay to transit facility, which provides urgent care and stabilizes patients in order to allow them to continue their medical evacuation journey to Poland and the various European countries, including Italy, which are welcoming this type of patients.
In the first four weeks of the conflict, the structure, which counts 180 beds, saw over 500 patients passing through, traveling with their families, often traumatized and in need of psychological support as well as hospitality. “Creating an emotional connection is very important – explains one of the psychologists working in the center – it is very difficult to be uprooted from one’s city and one’s life while facing a difficult path of medical treatment. Uncertainty becomes even harder to bear”.
The extraordinary intervention of INTERSOS will ensure the improvement of spaces that are now clearly inadequate to accommodate such fragile patients. The project is realized thanks to SV (Stichting Vluchteling) and in collaboration with Zaporuka Foundation, our local partner.