Before the Moldovan-Swiss Regionalization of Pediatric Emergency and Intensive Care Services in the Republic of Moldova Project (REPEMOL) started to be implemented, there were no emergency admission services in the national hospitals for child patients. Within the REPEMOL, regional centers for providing emergency pediatric hospital services were created in the north, center and south of the country, IPN has learned during an exhibition mounted to celebrate 15 years of activity by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, which financially supports the given project, in Moldova.
Earlier, there were only admittance sections and these weren’t outfitted with the equipment and number of doctors needed to act in emergencies. With the implementation of the project, emergency admission units were set up. These take over patients without losing time on identifying the suitable specialist. The project also trained and introduced in these units doctors who can examine and treat patients regardless of the emergency case so that the patient is not hospitalized and can go home in less than 24 hours.
Natalia Ciubarov, coordinator of the REPEMOL communication campaign, said regional emergency admission departments were opened at the Balti Municipal Clinical Hospital, the Municipal Children’s Hospital “Valentin Ignatenco”, the Mother and Child Institute and the Cahul District Hospital. Patients from the other regions of the country are brought to these regional departments.
Moreover, the project outfitted the institutions with modern equipment and medical gas distribution systems. The intensive care wards of the aforementioned hospitals, including of the Municipal Clinical Children’s Hospital of Contagious Diseases, were also equipped. Within the project, doctors and medical assistants from particularly all the regions of the country, not only from the five institutions, were trained in pediatric advantaged life support.
Anatolie Malcov, director of the Cahul District Hospital, said that an Emergency Medicine Department was created in Cahul as part of the project. This department is mixed – for children and for grownups. It was outfitted with specialized equipment, while the personnel were trained by participation in international seminars and conferences and by exchange of experience in Romania.
Maria Neamtu, head of the Balti Pediatric Department, said the number of children patients who come to the hospital rose by over 50%. “Once we dealt with about 7,000 cases, but now we have 17,000 requests at the emergency admission section. Children from all the northern districts come to our hospital,” she stated, noting that the doctors hope this project will be continued as they consider they still need training and technical assistance.
Stela Cornilova, division head at the Municipal Clinical Children’s Hospital of Contagious Diseases, said the institution was outfitted with radiography equipment and a centralized oxygen system. Besides, the doctors benefitted from training in how to provide qualified emergency assistance to children. “The number of people who come to the hospital for assistance rose two times,” she stated.
This is the third stage of the REPEMOL Project that is to be implemented until 2017. The first two stages had a budget of about 9 million Swiss Francs (over 186 million lei). The budget of the third stage is of 8.5 million Swiss Francs (170 million lei).
