HIV Patients in Kyiv Leave Lavra Hospital
People with AIDS who for several months refused to leave the no longer operating hospital Lavra, voluntarily moved to a new, not yet fully commissioned hospital on Amasova Street, Religion in Ukraine informs.
After the last desperate strike of the patients, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov instructed to move the patients to the new clinic by October 28. “On the 29th, we realized that no one was going to do it, so we ourselves took the car and drove the people,” the spokesperson of the Ukrainian Network of PLWH, Andriy Andrushkiv, told UM. “These are modern wards, with the proper conditions to provide treatment. However, doctors are not allowed to work in this building yet, because it has not been put into operation.”
He said that there are still legal delays for this land. The issue must be solved by the Kyiv City Council, but the National Academy of Medical Studies, which must submit the appropriate application, still has not done so.
The patients say that it is possible to live in the hospital on Amosova Street. The elevators and dining room are not working yet. So they have to eat at their own expense. “For us the most important thing is that there are doctors here,” said one of the patients Maryna. “So far they are not allowed here because of bureaucratic confusion. We hope for a speedy resolution of this matter.”
The new residence of the “runaways” from the Lavra hospital is located on the territory of the National Institute of Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases, though far from the other buildings. Patients hope that in an emergency the doctors would still come to the rescue, since the Hippocratic Oath is more important than bureaucratic regulations.
The Lavra hosptial, which was located on Kyiv Cave Monastery National Reserve, was closed in the summer by the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers. The hospital buildings were transferred to the reserve. The superior of the Kyiv Cave Monastery, Bishop Pavlo, repeatedly spoke out against the HIV-infected patients.
