Central Clinical Hospital issues SOS
Staffers beg the government to protect them from the arbitrariness of the Kyiv municipal authorities
“No to raids on medicine!”, “We won’t let the heart of Kyiv’s medicine be destroyed!”, “SOS-this hospital is in danger!” were the messages on the placards held by the personnel of the Central Clinical Hospital, which picketed Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers on Jan. 9, 2008.
“On Oct. 25, 2007, the Kyiv City Council passed a resolution to reorganize our hospital by turning it into an ordinary district hospital. This entails budget and personnel cuts that will eventually lead to the closure of the nearly 150-year-old hospital, which caters to patients who come from Kyiv and every region of Ukraine. We have some of the best medical professionals and entire family dynasties of doctors. The hospital is home to 11 departments; to close them down would be a severe blow to Ukrainian medical science,” said Valentyn Bidny, the chief doctor at the Central Clinical Hospital.
This is not the first time the hospital’s personnel has picketed the municipal authorities. They demonstrated near the building of the Kyiv City Administration before the October resolution was passed, but the city bureaucrats turned a deaf ear to them.
“We ran into problems in the summer of 2007 when I refused to sign the letters sent by the Kyiv City Administration, allowing some of the hospital’s land to be used for real estate development. Then I was fired, but the court reinstated me. So, after the abortive attempt to sack the “recalcitrant” chief doctor, the local authorities passed a resolution to reorganize the hospital. It may happen that after it is enforced the hospital will be gradually forced out of existence, and its centrally located premises will be used for real estate development and office buildings. That is why we are going to fight for our hospital to the end,” Bidny assured.
Valentyna Yavniuk, the head of the Endocrinology Center, is concerned that after the hospital’s reorganization the more than half— century-old center will be moved from its present location at 22a Pushkinska Street.
“Every year we treat between 2,500 and 3,000 patients, most of whom are invalids in need of at least biannual in-patient treatment. The Kyiv City Council approved the bill to move the center to City Clinical Hospital No. 16, which is not a polyvalent hospital and will not be able to ensure that our patients are seen by cardiologists, neuropathologists, nephrologists, and other specialists,” Yavniuk said.
In order to save their hospital, the personnel have sent many appeals to the Kyiv City Administration and the Prosecutor’s Office, and filed a lawsuit. So far, they have not had a response from any quarter. According to Bidny, the hospital staffers have even appealed-unsuccessfully — to President Viktor Yushchenko. Now they are pinning all their hopes on Yulia Tymoshenko, the new prime minister, because one of the promises she made during the election campaign was to put an end to the arbitrary rule of the Kyiv City Administration.
