The reconstructed chemotherapy department, with room for 50 patients, opened today at the Sumy Regional Clinical Oncology Center. The corridor, patient rooms, staff offices and sanitary rooms were renovated, and the utilities were replaced. The work took five months.
“Everything here has been done to new standards,” said Volodymyr Shevchenko, Director of the Oncology Center.
“The rooms, designed for one, two or three patients, are air-conditioned. Each of them has a TV, Wi-Fi and modern beds. Some rooms have their own toilets with shower stalls, and there are rooms for people with disabilities. Next to every bed there is a button to call a nurse. The signals go to a nurses’ station, where a nurse can see on a monitor everything that happens in the rooms and quickly coordinate care. There is also a room for day hospital patients, to keep the time patients spend in the hospital to a minimum. Given our patients’ diagnoses, conditions like these are, above all, a psychological factor that will make their stay at the facility better.”
Volodymyr Shevchenko stressed that the region used to have 420 cancer patients per 100,000 population, and this figure has now risen to 480. The increase is due to COVID-19 and the war: besides stressful situations that harm their health, people do not always take care of their health — they neglect prevention and see doctors too late. As a result, cancers progress and reach more serious stages. The doctor thanked the regional leadership, in particular the initiator of the modernization of the Sumy Region’s cancer service, Chairman of the Regional Council Viktor Fedorchenko, for his attention to the facility.
“The goal we set for ourselves is for our oncology center to become the best in Ukraine. We are gradually getting there. Over two years, a linear accelerator and a CT scanner have been purchased, and buildings have been renovated and reconstructed. The total amount spent on renovations and expensive equipment was UAH 110 million. No state funds were spent. This is money from the facility itself and from benefactors who donated it to the charitable foundation ‘Health of Sumy Region’, headed by Regional Council member Tetiana Yevdokymova,” said the chairman of the council.
He added that next in line is the renovation of the gynecologic oncology department, which will be located one floor up. The plan is to renovate it by the end of this year. A reconstruction project for an extension to house an MRI scanner has also already been completed. Minister of Health of Ukraine Viktor Liashko assured that, thanks to this initiative and the huge amount of work done, the Sumy Region is first in line to receive an MRI scanner. So the plan for this year is to see all this through, so that the region’s cancer service can provide a full range of modern services.