The RECOVERY innovative rehabilitation centre for wounded soldiers has opened its doors in Kyiv. Built from scratch on the site of a public hospital, the Centre meets the highest international standards of inclusion: wide corridors and doorways, sanitary and hygienic areas for patients with limited mobility. The Centre is fitted with the cutting-edge equipment. The RECOVERY project founded by Victor and Olena Pinchuk helps Ukrainian wounded soldiers recover to the highest standards of rehabilitation.
Military patients benefit from 2 highly functional physical rehabilitation halls, 3 physiotherapy rooms, massage rooms, an occupational therapy room, a manipulation room, a dressing room, and 12 inclusive wards with 30 beds. The facilities occupy 1,500 sq m in total. Thanks to an effective public-private partnership, the RECOVERY rehabilitation centre in Kyiv will be able to meet the recovery needs of the wounded soldiers in terms of quality and quantity.
“This Kyiv-based rehabilitation centre is absolutely unique. Built from scratch, it meets the highest inclusion standards to provide comfort to our defenders.
Our heroes and heroines are fighting on the military front for our independence. And they need to be sure that if something happens to them, if their lives and health are threatened, they can count on us – we will fight for their independence here, too. We will fight for their self-reliance. We estimate that over 11,000 soldiers will be able to receive rehabilitation care in our centres over a year. We have set no less ambitious goals for the next year,” said Victor Pinchuk, the RECOVERY project founder.
The RECOVERY Centre brings together multidisciplinary teams of doctors consisting of physical rehabilitation doctors, physical therapists, occupational therapists, massage therapists, assistants, a speech therapist and a psychologist. With the cutting-edge equipment and their high qualifications, the teams will provide high-quality, affordable and evidence-based rehabilitation care to our heroes and heroines.
The state-of-the-art equipment and VR devices in the Centre stand the defenders in good stead, helping them accelerate the recovery process. Moreover, the Centre covers the entire spectrum of functional disorders, including those caused by mine injuries, and helps to restore walking, as well as lost functions of the upper and lower limbs at a high technological level.
“Rehabilitation is a key after surgical or therapeutic treatment, it helps accelerate recovery of our soldiers. I am happy to see that our highly skilled rehabilitation teams can work with such cutting-edge equipment, as it helps professionals fulfil their potential and deliver the maximum effect of rehabilitation. The RECOVERY Centre is a fully-featured department that meets the latest requirements of rehabilitation protocols and enables the recovery from injuries to any part of the body, offering both post-acute and outpatient care,” said Ihor Kuchma, Chief Physician of the RECOVERY centre.
The need for high-quality rehabilitation in Ukraine is growing every day as public hospitals are now unable to provide proper care to all military patients. The RECOVERY project’s mission is to develop the rehabilitation sector in the country. This includes building a national network of rehabilitation centres for severely wounded soldiers, running international training programmes for rehabilitation specialists, providing sophisticated prosthetic care to soldiers abroad where this is not possible to do it in Ukraine, and ensuring quality rehabilitation of soldiers in private partner clinics.
Among the first patients are Ukrainian soldiers injured since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Closely supervised by the rehabilitation professionals, they undergo the rehabilitation every day, which will eventually improve their quality of life.
“We were loading tanks when a drone attacked us along with a convoy of vehicles. The shell fell two metres away from us. When I realised I was wounded, I felt I couldn’t move my legs. Before I started rehabilitation at the centre, I hardly felt even my feet, but now I can easily move them and am slowly recovering. I want to tell everyone who is wounded that everything can be recovered, we can do anything!” revealed 20-years old soldier Kyrylo, the first patient of the RECOVERY centre.
The Kyiv centre is planned to become a training base for the multidisciplinary teams of the RECOVERY project. The project is set to continue training Ukrainian rehabilitation professionals, and the first workshop was already held in Odesa.
Two new innovative rehabilitation centres for wounded soldiers of the RECOVERY national network in Odesa and Dnipro are already helping soldiers recover from their injuries, using the latest technologies and equipment. In 2023, the national network will launch ten RECOVERY innovative rehabilitation centre on sites of state hospitals in Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk (two centres), Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa (two centres), Rivne, Khmelnytsky, and Cherkasy Oblasts. Every year more than 11,000 patients will be able to benefit from the rehabilitation assistance at RECOVERY centres.