New Ambulances Save Lives in Zhytomyr
Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Zhytomyr’s emergency response system has been in decline. The quality of medical services gradually deteriorated as money to buy new equipment or upgrade poorly kept facilities disappeared. As a result, emergency response times dropped significantly putting the lives of sick patients at risk.
“You just can’t get to your patient in 10 minutes if your ambulance is 20 years old and breaks down twice a day,” explained Volodymyr Savchenko, Chief Doctor of Zhytomyr City Hospital #1.
When USAID’s Municipal Budget Reform (MBR) project started to work on improving financial management in Zhytomyr in 2005, the first thing it did was to persuade the town’s officials to engage the public in budget decision-making. Prior to trying a new budgeting method, the town held a series of budget hearings to understand what people needed most. It was during one of these hearings that Volodymyr called attention to the poor state of Zhytomyr’s emergency health care.
“When I first heard that the town administration was going to hold a public budget hearing, I was very skeptical”, says Volodymyr. “We saw too many initiatives get bogged down in the past. I am glad this time it was different.”
It was different indeed. Volodymyr’s speech helped make the quality of municipal hospital services a top priority. Using the PPB approach, the town identified financial resources to fund the purchase of nine new ambulances for local hospitals to allow for quicker emergency response times. “These nine cars will help us save lives, nothing more than that,” says Volodymyr.
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Zhytomyr’s new ambulances are always available to respond to emergencies
Photo Credit: Valeria Kotlyarenko |
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