PFVMH signs Memorandum of Cooperation with border guards

Today, the Supervisory Board chairman of the Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital, Gennadiy Druzenko, visited the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, where he signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the SBGSU Administration.

SBGSU Head Serhiy Deyneko signed the document a week ago, according to its date.

According to the Memorandum, the parties, taking into account the positive experience of the PFVMH activities in the zone of Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) / Joint Forces Operation (JFO), will cooperate during the JFO “in order to carry out diagnoses and preventive examinations and provide medical assistance” to SBGSU servicemen and employees who reside or do their service in the JFO areas.

The PFVMH will form a contingent of skilled medical professionals and will provide its services to border guards free of charge, independently raising required funds. Its responsibilities will also include information support for the joint project implementation.

In turn, the SBGSU Administration will designate an officer responsible for cooperation with the mobile hospital and will regularly inform the PFVMH of its personnel requirements for carrying out diagnoses and preventive examinations and providing medical assistance. Moreover, the SBGSU Administration will facilitate the “[official] involvement” in the JFO of the civilian medical workers on missions.

The border guards and the PFVMH reached a preliminary agreement to cooperate during a meeting of Gennadiy Druzenko with Serhiy Deyneko and SBGSU Administration Health Department Chief Valentyn Volokha on June 20, 2019. At the meeting, they also decided that Mariupol, where units of Ukraine’s border and coast guards are stationed, would be the project’s pilot city.

According to PFVMH Executive Director Tamila Danilevska, the project is expected to be launched in August. “We are waiting for the Border Guard Service to issue an order on preventive examinations and diagnoses. I don’t know if they will mention us [PFVMH] in the order but we are planning to work in conjunction with medics of border guards in the locations of their units in Mariupol. It will be our first step. If everything goes smoothly, we will spread the project over Border Guard Service units throughout Ukraine,” she said.

On the photo above, PFVMH Supervisory Board Chairman Gennadiy Druzenko (right) gives a PFVMH-branded cap to SBGSU Head Serhiy Deyneko during their meeting on June 20, 2019.