Authors: Marcin Choinski and Malwina Kossela
Polish Medical Mission, has launched two mobile clinics in 2023. Mobile medical staff help Ukrainian people in the humanitarian crisis who desperately need medical assistance but have no way to receive it. The war-torn country, with devastated medical facilities, has difficulties to provide citizens with efficient access to qualified medical services. Polish Medical Mission's mobile clinics have been moving around the Kharkiv region, delivering necessary aid. Between August and December 2023, they visited such localities as Izium, Russkiye Tishki, Cherkas'ki Tishki, Slatino, Kutuzovka, Bezruki, Slobobske, Zmiyiv, Barvinkove, and Dovgalyovka. So far, the mobile clinics have traveled a distance of 25,729 kilometers, and their medical team has worked a total of more than 3,520 hours during 6 months. The Kharkiv region has received the largest number of internal refugees - 690,000 people - primarily from the East and South of the country. Many of them are in need of medical assistance. IDP and hosting community are represented mostly by elderly, women and children. The medical team currently moving around Ukraine in mobile clinics was created in cooperation with the Israeli-Ukrainian NGO, FRIDA. Mobile clinics are two vans equipped with the most important medical equipment, which are moved by qualified medical personnel.
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The team in first mobile clinic consists of: a cardiologist or another specialist, a family doctor and two nurses
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The team in the second mobile clinic consists of: two family doctors and two nurses.
The medical team in the clinics also includes two pharmacists, who assists those working at the mobile clinics and provides their expertise and free of charge drugs to patients.
We had to devote a lot of time to prepare as best as possible for any threat, that may affect our work in the region. The quality of examinations performed must be up to standards, doctors must be fully focused on working with patients, although the vision of the need for immediate evacuation will accompany them at all times. We need to be sure that we have done everything we can, to ensure that our staff has the optimal conditions to work and return home safely - says Marcin Choiński, coordinator of the mobile clinics project on behalf of the Polish Medical Mission.
Mobile clinic activities in numbers
In the period from August to December 2023, the mobile clinics admitted 4,417 patients – 3,036 women and 1,381 men. Among them were 133 people with disabilities. The largest group of patients were people over 65, including 547 elderly people seeking medical help at the clinics in December alone. For many patients, the arrival of the mobile clinic is the first opportunity in many years, due to the pandemic and then the war, to verify their condition and adjust their treatment to the progressive symptoms of the disease.
During the aforementioned period, 3,003 clinical examinations were performed, including: ECG in 1,038 people, spirometry in 24 people and glucometry in 871 people. Among mobile clinic patients, non-communicable diseases were the most common, with 3,672 cases. During almost six months of operation, the medical team made 10,827 diagnoses. Residents of the Kharkiv region most often struggled with cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension (2,763 cases) and chronic coronary syndrome (993 cases). Diseases of the musculoskeletal system such as spinal hernia (842 cases) and musculoskeletal disorders (1,013 cases) were also common. There was also no shortage of patients with diabetes (579 people).
Many people living in war zones are struggling with psychological problems. Anxiety was diagnosed in 390 patients. Depression (172 cases) and other mental disorders also appeared. Before the onset of severe cold weather, people are more concerned about such issues such as power outages, inability to heat their own homes and prepare food. This is because the constant shelling last year did not really allow the power plants to be repaired. Experiences such as these have a deteriorating effect on residents' mental health. In response to this problem and signaled needs, a psychologist has joined the mobile clinic team, starting January 2024.
The mobile nature of the clinics will allow us to reach more people who need medical attention. We can expect that some of the residents, especially the elderly and those with problems with independent movement, have not monitored their health since before Covid-19. This means that some of them have not been taking medications or have not verified whether the measures they are taking are appropriate for their condition, or whether they should be treated in a different way due to the emergence of further ailments - says Marcin Choinski.
Regular visits to smaller villages in eastern Ukraine allow PMM to carry out follow up on the patients, drug distribution and also control outbreaks of diseases that may appear in the region.
As the mobile clinics project is proving itself, in 2024 it will be enriched not only by the presence of a psychologist, but also by another mobile clinic that will cover the Sumy region. In addition, a mobile laboratory will be put at the disposal of those in need, which will help in the expanded diagnosis of patients.