Irish-based GP says Hospitals in Ukraine 'at risk of being overwhelmed'

David Hall, CEO Lifeline Abulance Service, with doctors, Kateryna Kachurets, centre, and Nataliya Kononenk, at the Ukrainian Embassy in Dublin loading supplies in support of the ‘Medical Help Ukraine’ campaign. Picture: Mark Stedman

Hospitals in Ukraine are at risk of being overwhelmed as the war intensifies with an urgent need for targeted and ongoing medical aid, a Ukrainian doctor working in Ireland said.

Dr Kateryna Kachurets is part of Medical Help Ukraine, a group of doctors from the now war-torn country working in Ireland across hospitals and primary care in Cork, Limerick, and Dublin.

Set up soon after Russia invaded, the Ukrainian doctors are supported by the HSE and other health bodies including a generous public online fundraiser.

“There is a humanitarian crisis and hospitals need medical supplies, the number of casualties is rapidly overwhelming the Ukrainian health system,” said Dr Kachurets, a GP in Tallaght. 

“That is a crisis in itself and we need to support them the best we can. It is not a sprint, it is a marathon. 

"I pray every day that the invasion ends, it is heartbreaking and shocking to see my country reduced to rubble.” 

This week at a warehouse in Leixlip, Co Kildare, the group is packing nine ambulances donated by the HSE with urgently-needed medical supplies. 

They will be driven to the Polish-Ukraine border by 18 volunteer drivers who work for an Irish logistics company.

The hospitals are running low on everything, the hospitals are being bombed, the infrastructure is being destroyed as well.

“They need spinal boards, and first aid kits, and anything they can use in the field to stop the bleeding quickly like tourniquets, surgical staplers, antibiotics, and strong painkillers,” she said.

So far the public donation campaign has raised over €610,000 and she said this money is gratefully received to buy larger items.

“We had to buy an electricity generator for one of the hospitals, because they [the Russian army[ bombed one of the power plants,” she said.

The group’s first delivery was on March 2 when they sent one ambulance, stocked with medical supplies, to the Polish border together with two vans.

That ambulance, donated by Lifeline Ambulances, carried first aid kits, bandages, antiseptics, pain killers, antibiotics, and cardiac arrest trolleys.

A pharmaceutical company has donated three trucks of medicines with one due to travel on Wednesday to the city of Lviv in Ukraine. 

The military hospital there cares for civilian and military casualties from around the country, she said.

Thirty-four pallets of medication

One truck carried 34 pallets of medication,  with one pallet of antibiotics enough to stock a small hospital.

The group gets an updated list every week from Ukrainian hospitals, coordinated by one of their partners who is on the ground working in Lviv. This ensures each delivery sends exactly what is needed.

They are in close contact also with the Ministry of Health in Ukraine, so when deliveries arrive at warehouses, the aid can be quickly dispersed around the country to where it is most needed.

“This is a humanitarian crisis, the quicker we can do things the better,” Dr Kachurets said, adding their trucks have a ‘green corridor’ to pass through the borders between Ireland and Ukraine.

This is necessary to avoid delays, but also to ensure safe passage of controlled drugs like morphine which usually require permits. 

The group’s work is supported by the Ukrainian Embassy of Ireland, Lifeline Ambulance Services, the HSE, Blackrock Health, Bon Secours Health System Ireland, UPMC Ireland, Mater Private Network, and Ryanair.

The public can donate on the Ireland Medical Help Ukraine page on GoFundMe.