The renovated Children’s Intensive Care and Anaesthesiology Clinic at the "Pirogov" University General Hospital for Emergency Treatment was officially opened a few days ago by the hospital’s director Ass. Prof. Stoyan Milanov and Health Minister Petar Moskov. This was made possible thanks to financing by the Ministry of Health, a number of sponsors - including sponsors that have chosen to remain anonymous - and BGN 1 million (around EUR 500,000) raised by the hospital staff themselves.

Prof. Nadezhda Gavrilova, head of the clinic who has worked there for over 30 years describes what conditions were like for patients and doctors before the renovation:

“The truth is that the floor that houses the Children’s Intensive Care and Anaesthesiology Clinic and the operating theatre were built in 1984-1987. Since then it has been overhauled just once, when the floor covering was renovated. Following the standards at that time for operating theatres and intensive care units, the walls and the floor were tiled. But we know that tile joints are a breeding ground for bacteria; patients in intensive care units are especially susceptible to in-hospital infections. That is the reason why the clinic was in need of renovation – not just to make it more modern but from a hygienic point of view as well. As we are dependent on the Ministry of Health we had to wait some 18 months before we were granted funding for new equipment, for operating tables, for mechanical ventilators. Fortunately, never has any patient been put at risk here. But all this breeds an enormous amount of strain among the staff; but the most valuable asset we have are the people who love their job, whatever may come.”

How did it come about that the staff of “Pirogov” raised BGN 1 million?

“The Ministry of Health granted us BGN 630,000 (or EUR 315,000),” Prof Gavrilova goes on to say. “This was not enough to buy new equipment, not to mention things like machines for the sterilization of surgical instruments, air conditioning, because nowhere in the world is an operating theatre or intensive care unit aired by throwing the windows open… So, willy-nilly, we the staff at “Pirogov” became our clinic’s biggest sponsor. And I think that we should feel proud of it.”

In the words of Prof. Gavrilova, there will be new kinds of activities at the clinic. The designated endoscopic surgery operating theatre will be used to perform endoscopic thoracic and abdominal operations i.e. what is known as minimally invasive surgery. This will mean treating children diagnosticated with serious neurological diseases in need of neurocritical care – encephalitis, muscular dystrophy or spinal stroke. There is no other intensive care unit in Sofia for cases such as these and there is no general hospital for children in Bulgaria. Prof. Gavrilova adds that if all pediatric departments could be brought together under one roof, that would make consultations much easier and would foster cooperation. Let us not forget that a child died recently in the Emergency Hospital in Razgrad because they didn’t have a pediatric surgeon there. Ninety percent of Bulgarian hospitals do not have pediatric surgeons.

What would Prof. Gavrilova like to see happen in health care in 2015?

“I would like to see real change because going back almost 30 years there have been more words than deeds.”

English: Milena Daynova