More than 1,100 Ukrainian doctors received new knowledge thanks to the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation
More than 1,100 Ukrainian doctors received new knowledge thanks to the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation
The Rinat Akhmetov Foundation, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the Association of anesthesiologists, held the second online conference for doctors working with artificial lung ventilation devices.
This time, the main topic of the three-hour webinar was the new challenges for Ukrainian healthcare caused by the COVID-19 epidemic as well as ways to solve them, one of which is the use of artificial lung ventilation devices.
- When Ukraine faced the threat of a pandemic, the state health system was completely unprepared for the new challenge. There was a lack of equipment to help patients with complications from coronavirus – modern ventilators, sample analyzers, as well as protective equipment for doctors and rapid tests. Rinat Akhmetov was the first to help the country. To work effectively, the Foundation created the project Fighting COVID-19 in Ukraine, which became part of the program Rinat Akhmetov – Saving Lives. The project has no analogues in the country. This is the largest, systematic and large-scale private initiative aimed at helping state medical institutions in the fight against coronavirus. A key element of assistance to the country in the framework of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation project Fighting COVID-19 in Ukraine was the purchase of more than 200 state-of-the-art ventilators for public hospitals. After all, it was the ventilators that Ukrainian medicine needed most of all, - Natalya Yemchenko, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Foundation said.
According to her, more than 140 high-class ventilators from the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation have already been delivered to the main state hospitals in 12 regions of the country. The conference is also designed to help doctors learn new techniques as quickly as possible.
- Ukraine, like the whole world, has been fighting the coronavirus for more than six months. The situation remains extreme and critical. And right now we are seeing the so-called second wave. We can only overcome this new challenge together. This is the second webinar that the Foundation conducts for doctors working with artificial lung ventilation devices. We received a lot of positive feedback from participants and realized that there is a large request from doctors to conduct new seminars. The second conference is a continuation of a large educational project for doctors, - Yuliia Yershova, Chief Communications Officer of the Foundation said.
The conference participants noted that the number of cases of coronavirus is increasing throughout the country. According to the President of the Association of anesthesiologists of Ukraine Serhii Dubrov, the reason for this is given by people themselves.
- One of the reasons is the reluctance of many Ukrainians to adhere to basic recommendations: observe social distance, wear masks in public places. Containment of the epidemic depends on each of us and everyone needs to understand this. The rapidly growing number of patients with coronavirus can lead to the collapse of the health care system, - Serhii Dubrov explained.
Therefore, leading experts of the Ministry of Health shared the most relevant international standards for the treatment of coronavirus. The conference participants paid special attention to the role of artificial lung ventilation devices. According to experts, today the most effective method of non-invasive ventilation. That is, without intubation of the trachea. Serhii Dubrov also announced the main criteria for transferring a patient with coronavirus to artificial ventilation, developed by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.
Experts noted that the combined use of ventilators and drug therapy is effective for the treatment of patients with coronavirus.
- I see information in the press and on the Internet that Ukrainian doctors need ECMO devices to saturate blood with oxygen, not ventilators. This is nonsense, because even when a patient is transferred to ECMO, they still need protective artificial lung ventilation, - Yurii Kuchyn, doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Rector of the Bogomolets National Medical University added.
More than 1,100 doctors from all regions of Ukraine participated in the II online conference. The first webinar for anesthesiologists and staff of intensive care units in the main state hospitals was held by the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation in May 2020. It was attended by more than 800 doctors from all over Ukraine. According to them, this is a unique opportunity to exchange experience.
- Thank you very much for conducting online training, thanks to which we managed to get a lot of valuable and useful information for our work. I got new knowledge and adopted the experience of the best specialists in Ukraine, – the doctor of the Mirnograd Infectious Diseases Hospital Yuliia Tokar says.
- Transfer to artificial lung ventilation for severe patients is often the last chance for recovery, so knowing all the subtleties and features of the patient's respiratory support allows you to provide the most effective assistance. Thank you for this seminar, – another participant of the webinar, a doctor from Dnipro, Ksenia Dubovyk said.
Fighting COVID-19 in Ukraine is a large-scale project of the Foundation created to help save people's lives. It is implemented under the program Rinat Akhmetov – Saving Lives. Earlier, Rinat Akhmetov launched 200 Ambulances for Ukraine, which was was implemented as part of this program. Back then, all regional state medical institutions received 200 special vehicles with state-of-the-art military equipment that can get over off-road conditions within the record time of six months. Moreover, 22 vehicles equiped with ventilators`for newborns were also delivered. This is the largest contribution made by one philanthropist to the state medicine of Ukraine since our country became independent. These days, many of these ambulances are involved in the fight against the coronavirus epidemic.
Read more about the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation's assistance to the country in the fight against COVID-19 in the review materials:
