The Ministry of Health of Ukraine will create a council to restore Okhmatdyt, reports Komersant ukrainskyi
reports with reference to the press service of the Ministry of Health.
Today, the Ministry of Health informed about the approval of the relevant regulation. The new Okhmatdyt Reconstruction Council will ensure public control over all processes of hospital reconstruction, in particular, it will monitor transparency and integrity in the selection of a contractor for the current repair and interior decoration of the building of the modern medical and diagnostic complex.
The Board will consist of 15 members and will be formed in two stages.
At the first stage, the Board will include
- representatives of the philanthropists who made the largest donations and fundraisers (6 people)
- a representative of the Ministry of Health (1 person);
- a representative of Okhmatdyt (1 person).
The second stage will include the selection of 7 representatives of NGOs and charitable organisations working in the areas of corruption prevention, patient rights protection and healthcare development. Representatives of civil society organisations will be selected by the Council’s staff based on the results of application review and rating voting.
The call for applications will be published on the website of the Ministry of Health. The selection criteria and application procedure will also be available there. Representatives of philanthropists will be invited to join the Board first, taking into account the amount of their contribution to the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Okhmatdyt and their participation in organising charity fundraising.
Russian missile attack on Okhmatdyt hospital on 8 July
on 8 July 2024, during another massive missile attack during the Russian-Ukrainian war, the hospital suffered significant damage from a Russian X-101 cruise missile strike. The strike damaged the hospital’s buildings, destroyed some of the medical facility’s buildings, smashed windows and glass, and caused casualties.
The Russians destroyed the building of the Toxicology Department, where seriously ill children were on dialysis, five oncology departments, ten surgical departments, two somatic departments, an intensive care unit, two intensive care units, operating units, radiotherapy and radiotherapy departments, and three other buildings were damaged. Two electrical substations that powered the hospital’s entire infrastructure were also destroyed.
As of mid-day, two adults (one of them a doctor) and seven children were known to have been killed and injured. on 10 July, a boy died who was in critical condition in the intensive care unit at the time of the attack on Okhmatdyt on 8 July.
on 9 July 2024, the director of Okhmatdyt, Volodymyr Zhovnir, addressed the UN Security Council. In his speech, he stated that at the time of the attack, about 1,200 people were in the hospital and 3 complex operations were underway. The attack killed 2 people and injured about 300, including 8 children. He also noted that the attack damaged 24 departments, which will limit the ability to provide quality medical services to those in need.
Immediately after the attack on the hospital, Ukrainians began raising funds to rebuild Okhmatdyt and, according to Health Minister Viktor Liashko, raised more than UAH 1 billion. However, the hospital’s charitable foundation has since found itself at the centre of a scandal when choosing a contractor to repair the damaged building. The foundation chose Bud-Technology LLC as the winner of the tender, despite the fact that this offer was one of the most expensive among 14 bidders. The Ministry of Health decided to cancel the previous tender and hold a new one through the Prozorro system.