KYIV, September 6, 2024 — As of today, the last civilian hospital in Pokrovsk, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, has had to relocate all staff, medical equipment, and supplies as the front lines of the war approach the city. This facility previously provided urgent and specialized care to war-wounded patients, particularly during mass casualty events.
"Our medical team supported the hospital’s emergency room and ICU [intensive care unit]. We witnessed health care workers salvaging equipment to transport them to safer locations. Patients had already been evacuated," says Christopher Stokes, an emergency coordinator with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Ukraine.
MSF ambulances continue operating in Pokrovsk and surrounding areas, supporting the health system with referrals and emergency medical evacuations. A mandatory evacuation was declared in Pokrovsk and surrounding towns and villages on August 20, 2024. MSF teams provided medical consultations to evacuees at railway stops en route. In August, MSF ambulances made 320 medical evacuations from Pokrovsk, of whom 55 percent were for ICU patients.
In the more than two years since the escalation of war in Ukraine in 2022, MSF medical teams have observed that medical facilities located 10-20 miles from conflict areas in eastern and southern Ukraine have been either damaged or completely destroyed due to relentless shelling. Those that remain functional face a critical shortage of medical personnel. Hospitals also suffer from a shortage of beds, as they are inundated not only with war-wounded patients but also with those suffering from chronic illnesses, heart attacks, strokes, and car accident injuries.
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