Recommendation report medical/technical charity aid Moldova
Summary
On Saturday, May 7, we held an evaluation meeting with Dr. Victor Savin (Director local healthcare) and Prof. Ion I. AbabII (Medical School Chisinau).
It's not easy to write a summary about something, which surpassed our wildest expectations. The University Hospitals and the Medical School are doing everything within their power to provide proper care to patients. We deeply respect all the effort and creativity the employees have to come up with, just to keep things going. All employees show great respect and dedication to take care of patients and we can hardly believe the circumstances in which they have to do their job.
All hospitals we visited, suffer from such shortcomings on the medical-technical level, that patient care is not optimal (to say the least). There are some differences between the technical capabilities of the hospitals, caused by the level of maintenance and the presence of medical equipment. We feel that good medical care does not rely on medical knowledge alone, but depends also on well looked after "hardware" like buildings and equipment for diagnostics, treatment, therapy etc.
Additionally, there is a need for a well-organized management system, based on the so-called triangle: medicine, care and technology (engineering). Due to the lack of technology, in so many ways and departments, you can't speak of a well-balanced system or team. Both gentlemen acknowledge this. They share our worries about the complete underdevelopment of the technology side of the triangle and concur with the fact that this has to be solved. We also agreed that money is the only remedy. Unfortunately, the government is not able to support the hospitals financially.
In one of our meetings, Dr. Savin stated that they have to break with the old Soviet mentality and find a way to create one's own. Crucial in accomplishing this, is Western medical and technical support. Only with foreign aid, it will be possible to improve healthcare in Moldova and improve the medical knowledge and training facilities of the University. If this succeeds, the people of Moldova will benefit the most!
Moldova is working on some form of integration in Europe. The country is short of possibilities in so many departments and on every level. That's why it is of the up-most importance that Moldovian Hospitals are visited and supported by western physicians, managers, instructors, engineers etc. Money is not the only thing they need to change the current system: they need advice and knowledge as well.