Professor Gerard Bury, Emeritus Professor of General Practice, provides the latest update on the UCD CEMS Ukraine Trauma Project.
The project received tremendous initial support from UCD, professional colleagues and charitable donations to UCD Foundation amounting to almost €100,000, which has been spent or committed to training and equipment missions to date.
We have now gained important additional supports which allow for the further development of the project.
I am happy to report that the Irish Red Cross has, this week, agreed a contribution of €150,000 to the project (together with establishing working links to the Ukrainian Red Cross) and will consider further supports in the future.
The HSE has made an initial contribution of €20,000 on behalf of the Minister for Health and further contributions are being explored.
Mr. Micheal Martin has indicated his support for the work of the project and a meeting is planned with the Tainiste to explore further supports from the Departments of Defence and Foreign Affairs.
The project focuses on the delivery of advanced pre-hospital interventions among trauma patients in Ukraine. We have now delivered two 'provider' and one 'train-the-trainer' courses to almost 90 medics/paramedics and the fourth equipment re-supply exercise is underway.
We have had increasingly urgent requests from Ukrainian authorities and those involved in the training of first-responders to continue our work and we are now planning our next missions. The contributions outlined above, together with the support of the university, will enable us to address the urgent clinical needs of critically injured victims of the Russian invasion.
I especially want to acknowledge my colleagues on the Ukraine Trauma Project (UTP) Steering Group for their work and to thank the expert clinicians who have supported the project.
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