Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has teamed up with the Circle Health Group, which operates the Bath Clinic, to launch an urgent appeal for medical supplies for Ukrainian hospitals.
Boris Johnson loading supplies for Ukraine | Photo © Zoe Norfolk
Hospitals in Ukraine have warned they face running out of vital items such as bandages and defibrillators within weeks without donations.
Doctors have been appealing for urgent assistance, and the Bath Clinic, alongside Circle’s other 54 hospitals, has come to their aid.
Over the last 8 months, nearly 300 tonnes, around £3 million worth, of medical supplies in 13 lorry loads has been delivered across Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odessa, Lviv and Kherson.
MP Boris Johnson visited the Enfield warehouse where supplies are gathered from Bath Clinic with the Ukrainian Ambassador to see first-hand the logistics of transporting hospital kit in bulk across Europe by lorry.
He was briefed by Ukrainian doctors helping to coordinate relief efforts and helped to load the latest lorry with hospital beds and anaesthetic machines.
Speaking after the visit, he called on people to give generously to the appeal.
He said: “The Great British public are renowned for their generosity of spirit – even when times are tough at home – so I’m calling on them to dig deep this Christmas and help send hope to the heroic Ukrainian medics battling to save lives by supporting Circle Health’s vital humanitarian mission.
“Not one bandage or bed you fund will go to waste in the Herculean task of rebuilding beautiful, brave Ukraine. Slava Ukraini: the British people stand with you, this Christmas and always.”
A team of Ukrainian doctors working for Circle Health Group in the UK liaise directly with medics and inform Circle Health Group about hospitals’ stock shortages in real time.
Items are then gathered from each of Circle’s hospitals across every region of the UK and sorted and loaded at their Enfield warehouse.
Dedicated employees volunteer to drive the loads across Europe right into war-torn areas of Ukraine.
Items delivered to date include hundreds of wheelchairs, crutches, scrubs, bandages, ambulances, operating tables, hospital beds, ventilators, anaesthetic machines and prosthetics.
As winter sets in, hospital supplies are once again running dangerously low in several regions.
Circle Health’s latest lorry load departed from Enfield to transport vital medical aid to newly liberated Kherson, as well as Odessa in the East.
Bath Clinic has made a renewed commitment to continue supporting Ukrainian medics for as long as the crisis continues.
Paolo Pieri, CEO of Circle Health, said: “It’s so easy to get caught up in problems at home and become immune to the immense hardship facing people in Ukraine.
“As a fellow hospital operator, we are determined to stand with these Ukrainian hospitals for the long-haul.
“As Winter sets in, new medical supplies have never been more vital, and we hope our regular shipments will help show this remarkable group of doctors that they’re not alone.”
A spokesperson for Bath Clinic, said: “Everyone at Bath Clinic has been moved by the terrible events unfolding in Ukraine we and the community in Bath are proud to renew our commitment to medical colleagues in Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odessa, Lviv and Kherson.”
Professor Rostyslav Smachylo is a specialist hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgeon from Kharkiv in the East of Ukraine. He said: “We are seeing increasing numbers of elderly people who stayed in the city but have been injured as a result of the violence taking place around them.
“We lack a lot of equipment needed to cope with the volume of patients we are seeing with particularly complex injuries and conditions. The hospital has also seen windows blown out and structural damage.
“Knowing that we have allies in Britain and the support of the British stiffens our resolve – we are incredibly grateful, and we ask that you don’t forget us.”
