City Maternity Hospital №1 reopens in Kharkiv
City Maternity Hospital №1 reopened after almost two years of downtime due to extensive damage caused by shelling.
According to the director of the medical facility Yevhen Blagoveshchenskyi, the maternity hospital suffered several hostile strikes at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. The largest one took place on 1 March 2022, after which the hospital stopped working.
«About 50% of the building was destroyed. It was impossible to work then, because the heating was cut off, windows and doors were smashed, and the roof was damaged. At that time, there were about 30 women in labour here», - said Yevhen Blagoveshchensky.
According to Ihor Kulyk, acting director of the Health Department, with the assistance of the International Organisation for Migration, repairs were carried out on all floors of the building. In particular, about 880 square metres of roof, six entrance groups, more than 150 windows and 100 doors in the wards were restored.
«Today the City Maternity Hospital №1 resumed its work, and now all seven maternity hospitals in Kharkiv are functioning. All of them meet high criteria for medical care. We are very grateful to our European partners who helped with the reconstruction and to Mayor Igor Terekhov who found sponsors for the reconstruction of the hospitals», - said Igor Kulyk.
Serhiy Konchenko, Medical Coordinator of the International Organisation for Migration, said that the City Maternity Hospital №1 was provided with an ultrasound machine and an operating table. The facility has installed a ventilation system in the operating room, showers and toilets, and all communications have been fully restored.
«In the near future, our organisation plans to donate a biochemical analyser and additional beds for deliveries. In addition, we will continue to implement various projects to ensure the provision of quality medical services in Kharkiv», - said Sergiy Konchenko.
(Photo by Ihor Leptuga and Viacheslav Madievskyi).
