New opportunities and directions of providing medical care from the charitable foundation of “Rozvytok Hromady”
With the help of our donors from Belgium, we have established new connections with state university clinics, which greatly increase our opportunities to provide highly qualified healthcare to our patients in the best possible conditions.
The best clinics in Belgium have a long and very successful history of cooperation with foreign medical tourists. That's how people who come because of different occasions are called: from plastic surgery to the last stages of oncology. And there are over 40,000 people each year. That is why to choose the best clinic or doctor at an affordable price you can only on advice of local people, or acquaintances who have gone this route. We are fortunate to have Belgians from “Kiwanis” international organization, which previously collaborated with us in a program to help Yakiv Yukhymiv, who successfully had a liver transplant surgery in St. Luke's private hospital.
This hospital can accommodate thousands of patients at one time. Nearby is a small town with a hotel where other people are waiting for their chance for recovery. There are not so many units in St. Luck: there are departments of transplantology, oncology, surgery, neurosurgery, etc. In general six. They are headed by doctors with high professional skills. Unfortunately, the staff does not speak Ukrainian, Russian, or Polish languages, which are accessible to our patients. So, it is need to invite an interpreter.
Our "lucky", as his mother Solomiia Yukhymiv calls him, is expecting the next course of therapy, which will cost 13 thousand euros. This is due to autoimmune anemia which was detected after transplantation. One course of treatment in this clinic costs over 1000 Euros. Now, our boy and his mother live near a university clinic. They are expecting the full amount of funds. The boy feels good, constantly smiling, cheerful and sociable.
Another clinic in Ghent, which is not far from the City of Brussels, is larger - 6,000 staff and 3,000 hospital beds. The old and well-known University Hospital in Belgium differs because: firstly, the services are much cheaper than in the capital; secondly, it has larger range of services and thirdly, there are 35 units, including otolaryngology, oncology, and neurology, orthopedics, allergology, rehabilitation, etc. From the experience of providing surgery to one of our donors, we found out that in the clinic, doctors were able to keep his father's fingers when in another hospital fingers were about to be removed because they were endangering the patient's life. By the way, the professor who conducted the operation is still working. Here, each patient either receives urgent care, or is assigned a time for treatment or surgery after six months, a year. The first thing is a consultation by a doctor, which costs 33 euros. All of this will greatly help us in offering better conditions for patients who are seeking help in our fund.
The meeting with Ms. Natali Vermeier, a physician from the Pediatric Orthopedics Unit, and at the same time a person who works with foreign medical tourists, was long and serious conversation about all the possibilities and features of cooperation. She showed us the clinic. We were impressed with the fantastic beauty and state-of-the-art technology medical facilities and laboratories. Unfortunately, we could not take photos everywhere. The most impressing was the room with 30 cameras that capture every movement of the patient, noting the smallest progress after surgery or rehabilitation.
"We treat each patient very individually. First of all, it's a personal appointment with a doctor for consultation. Often, foreigners ask for an email connection. But all the correspondence is excluded because of the high possibilities of privacy abuse. Most of all, it's a short phone call, but it happens after surgery or therapy. We care about our reputation and our privacy.”said Ms. Vermeier.
The transportation of the patient from the aircraft, if necessary, is carried out by a clinical medical vehicle. It can also be done with the help of the Red Cross, where we are pointed that they have their own advantages in delivering seriously ill patients from the ramp of the plane, bypassing long customs queues.
Several other clinics in Brussels, such as the Erasmus University Medical Center, Saint-Pierre University Hospital, and others, offer no less qualified help, but all depend on the cost and wishes of the patient. There are also various ways to reduce the cost of a service through a variety of funds, from insurance to social.
"We are deeply grateful to our Belgian friends and donors not only for the long and reliable cooperation with the “Rozvytok Hromady” Fund in various charity projects, but also for the organization and support in an intensive and valuable tours of clinics in the European capital," said the director Veronika Khidchenko. - "It greatly expands our capacity as a fund to help people who are not able to get it by the state."