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Oncology Clinic
In October 2002 Yuliya traveled to
Russia and visited the Oncology Clinic. She
spoke with the Director of the Clinic, Mr. Dovlaterii Dadyanov and the Chief
Doctor of the Clinic, Dr. Velvil Mirochnik. She was given a tour of the
facilities, talked to employees and patients, and was also allowed to take some
pictures. More importantly, she discussed with the clinic administrators their
financial situation and the shortages they face.
The greatest needs and problems that they talked
about were the following:
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Basic Medical
Equipment and Supplies: The
Clinic is an inpatient cancer treatment facility with 140 beds.
It is staffed by 7 physicians and a small staff of assistant
personnel. The physicians
receive a monthly salary of about $55.00.
The clinic has a total annual budget of $10,000 (subsidized strictly
by the Russian government, no private funding is available).
In 2000 the clinic suffered severe damage from a fire, which resulted
in their entire budget for 2001 having to be used for repairs and
reconstruction. This seriously
exaggerated the previously existing shortages of supplies, equipment and
other necessary items. Due to
strict customs regulations it can be very difficult and expensive to import
medical equipment. There are,
however, companies in Russia specially licensed to import medical equipment
and supplies manufactured in Europe. However,
even for the limited amounts of equipment that may be available, the Clinic
has NO money to buy them. Therefore,
the Clinic would benefit most from financial contributions to purchase
equipment locally. In order
to avoid possible misappropriation of the funds sent to benefit the Clinic,
volunteers from Midwest for Kaliningrad will plan to travel to Russia at
their own expense to make purchases on behalf of the Clinic.
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Radiation Treatment Facility:
A major frustration to the clinic staff is that although they have an X-ray
radiation machine, they do not have an appropriate facility in which to use
it. The room in which the
radiation machine is now used, does not have lead protection on all sides.
Therefore, the machine can be used only in a limited number of
positions, when in order to treat patients effectively, the machine should
rotate in all directions to be able to target the cancer tumor. To solve
this problem the clinic has already obtained a permit to build a separate
building as a radiation facility. However,
the building will cost $10,000, which the Clinic does not have.
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Collaboration:
The clinic administration would also be very interested in
collaborating with, or hosting American oncologists willing to travel to
Kaliningrad, to discuss specific cases, and learn about different techniques
and modern methods of cancer treatment.
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