Joint medical pilot project of PFVMH and SBGSU completed successfully
A medical survey of border guards under a pilot project of the Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital and the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine finished today in Mariupol. In nine days, eight volunteer doctors and two doctors of the SBGSU had carried out annual preventive check-ups on the personnel of the SBGSU Donetsk Border Guard Detachment and the SBGSU Mariupol Coast Guard Detachment.
Judging by feedback, the pilot project may be considered an undeniable success. “Valentyn Volokha, SBGSU Administration Health Department Chief, has personally phoned me, thanked for good work, and spoke about further cooperation,” says Tamila Danilevska, PFVMH Executive Director. “We have agreed to discuss our next steps specifically when I’m back in Kyiv. I’ve also had talks with the chief of the SBGSU Donetsk-Luhansk Regional Directorate, Maj. Gen. Oleksandr Lebid, and the heads of all units where our doctors worked. All of them thanked us.”
The check-ups began on Aug. 12. As the manual requires, undergoing annual preventive check-ups is mandatory for every serviceman. According to the Health Service head of the SBGSU Donetsk-Luhansk Regional Directorate, Lt. Col. Oleh Havrashenko, this survey’s findings show that the border guards’ health is at an appropriate level that allows them to fulfill their tasks. “However, the medical survey has discovered cases that neither we nor the servicemen themselves were aware of, which require further examination and elaboration. These cases are not critical,” Havrashenko said.
He also said he is satisfied with the pilot project and considers it successful. “We were reinforced by means like ultrasound scanner, [the doctors] did diagnoses and tests. Our and civilian medics communicated and shared their experience, what was for their benefit. We reported to the leadership on results of our work almost daily and there’s never been any criticism on their part.”
SBGSU Donetsk Border Guard Detachment Health Section Head Maj. Andriy Rodin, too, says that the conduct of annual preventive check-ups by joint efforts of volunteer and military medics was both successful and useful: “They have worked very efficiently and rendered us great assistance. They did ultrasound scanning, ECG, analyses. Everybody liked it very much, everybody praised, especially frontier veterans who snatched this examination opportunity and were just delighted.”
The preventive check-ups on border guards were carried out by a team of doctors form the PFVMH and the SBGSU Main Military-Medical Center, including a general practitioner from Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Halyna Chernysh; a cardiologist from Kyiv Oblast, Olena Skorobohach; two doctors from Rivne, neurologist Larysa Yarmolyuk and sonographer Lyubov Yarmolyuk; two doctors from Lviv Oblast, general practitioner Natalia Nahurska and gynecologist Maryana Poberezhnyk; a psychologist from Kharkiv, Serhiy Usenko; and a surgeon from Kyiv, Serhiy Staskevych; as well as the SBGSU MMMC Infectious Diseases Department head, Col. Vakentyn Prymak, and Otorhinolaryngology Department head, Lt. Col. Andriy Herasymiv. The group of PFVMH medics was led on-site by Ihor Buyvol.
On the day before the last day of work of this team, in front of the troops’ formation, SBGSU Donetsk Border Guard Detachment Chief Col. Anatoliy Kotsyurba handed a certificate of acknowledgment to each member of the team and a separate one thanking PFVMH personnel.
The PFVMH’s collaboration with border guards is based on the Memorandum of Cooperation between the volunteer hospital and the SBGSU Administration signed by PFVMH Supervisory Board Chairman Gennadiy Druzenko and SBGSU Head Serhiy Deyneko. According to the Memorandum, the parties will cooperate during the Joint Forces Operation “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 photos are courtesy of the SBGSU.
