Doctors treated more than 6,000 civilian patients during its operation
An Israeli medical team sent to western Ukraine to run a field hospital set up after the Russian invasion returned home on Friday after six weeks of operation.
The Mostyska hospital, about 50 kilometers west of Lviv, was named after ‘Kohav Meir’ (‘shining star’), a pun on the former Israeli prime minister’s name Golda Meir, who was born in Ukraine. She was also the founder of the aid program of the Agency for International Development Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which led the project with the Sheba Medical Center.
During those six weeks, the hospital treated more than 6,000 patients and delivered at least one baby.
Most of those treated were not war-wounded, but rather civilians who would have struggled to receive treatment as Ukraine’s resources were stretched by the invasion.
The hospital was originally scheduled to operate for a month, but the closing date was postponed twice, and the original 100 staff – including 80 doctors and nurses – were replaced with new teams from Sheba Medical Center.
During a visit to the hospital earlier this month, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz thanked medical staff for their “sacred work”.
The hospital had 150 beds in the emergency, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology departments.
The installation, worth 21 million shekels (5.9 million euros), has made it possible to transform several classrooms into hospital wards.
The hospital was the flagship of Israeli aid to Ukraine, which was limited to humanitarian aid, although kyiv had also repeatedly requested military aid.
–
