A donation from the United Arab Emirates: Ambulance vehicles delivered

A donation from the United Arab Emirates: Ambulance vehicles delivered

The keys of the ambulance vehicles were handed over to the heads of health institutions by the director of the Republic Health Insurance Fund, Sanja Radojević Škodrić, and the UAE Ambassador to Serbia, Mubarak Al Dhaheri, in the presence of the State Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Aleksandar Stefoski.

The donation consists of 15 ambulance vehicles that were delivered to the Prijepolje and Gnjilane health centers, the Priboj General Hospital, the Kruševac General Hospital, the Loznica, Ivanjica, Niš health centers, the Kosovska Mitrovica and Bežanijska kosa clinical and hospital centers, the Selters Rehabilitation Institute...

Škodric said that the vehicles are fully equipped, from the transport beds to the radio station in the cabin, and added that the importance of this donation is all the greater because today there is a global problem that, when an ambulance is paid for, no matter how much it is paid, the deadline for the delivery is minimum six to eight months.

"These vehicles will save many lives, obviously in remote places that don't have a single health center nearby and for whom even a second on the way to the hospital is very precious," Škodric pointed out.

She stated that, despite the fact that 4.5 billion euros are being invested in healthcare this year, such donations mean a lot because they significantly improve the quality of healthcare services. Škodric thanked Ambassador Al Dhaheri and the President of the UAE, as well as the citizens of that country who, as she said, are proven and sincere friends of Serbia.

"During the coronavirus pandemic, we received multi-million dollar donations on several occasions, from protective equipment to almost all devices - magnetic resonance imaging, several scanners, X-rays, ultrasounds, EKG machines, defibrillators, which was of great benefit, not only to the citizens of Serbia, but also to our healthcare workers, whose work was significantly facilitated in this way," Škodric said.

Ambassador Al Dhaheri said that this donation is only a product of the high level of bilateral relations and successful cooperation between Serbia and the UAE.

He pointed out that the aid provided by the UAE is not related to the political orientation or to the religious and racial affiliation of the beneficiary countries, but that it is guided exclusively by the humanitarian aspect, which is reflected in the human need for peoples to bond with each other.

The State Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Aleksandar Stefoski, said that the medical vehicles that were assigned today present "mini hospitals".

"If we are aware of the urgency of time factor and how much it means in providing first aid, then we see the importance of such vehicles where complete medical care can be provided because those vehicles are equipped with oxygen, a defibrillator and other devices that are necessary for providing first aid," said Stefoski.

He stated that it has been seen in the past period how much the state has invested in healthcare and added that this investment continues both in investments and in equipment, and that all this is accompanied by personnel support through the employment of young personnel, education and assistance at every level.

"This is another indicator of friendship and good relations between Serbia and the UAE," Stefoski added.

The directors of the health institutions thanked for the donation, and among others, there was the director of the General Hospital in Priboj, Predrag Terzić, who said that this is a wonderful and extremely valuable donation that means a lot.

He pointed out that Prijepolje is about 300 kilometers away from Belgrade and that the daily transportation of their patients requires expensive vehicles.

"When it comes to our hospital, it is approximately around 40,000 kilometers per month, which means half a million per year. In fact, we use up one ambulance vehicle in a year. This can only help us in the treatment of our patients and we hope for establishing better and greater cooperation", Terzic said. Director of the Ivanjica Health Center, Nikola Karapetrović, says that ambulances are always welcome, especially in remote, small areas.

"The importance of the new ambulance and the renewal of our vehicle fleet is truly priceless. The new ambulance vehicle is furnished with the most modern equipment, everything we need to provide the most urgent, first aid to patients is in one place, within easy reach," said Karapetrović.

He thanked everyone for this, as he pointed out, huge donation that will save many lives and make daily work of employees in health care facilities easier.

The director of KBC "Bežanijska kosa" Marija Zdravković said that this is another example of the outstanding commitment of the RFZO, the Ministry of Health and the entire government to continuous investment in the health system of our country, which, she added, results in continuous achievements in saving people's lives in these regions.

"KBC 'Bežanijska kosa' has made extreme efforts in treating the patients with the coronavirus, but they would never have succeeded without the commitment of our staff and the state, which has continuously been with us and helped us to enable everyone who was treated by our staff to have an easier recovery", said Zdravković.

She especially thanked the UAE for its constant support, which, she added, meant a lot to us in difficult times.

"It's very nice to know that you have friends who are not so close to us geographically speaking, but still very close in heart," added Zdravković.