Town in Ternopil Oblast reports the highest number of infected doctors

Desperate medical workers from Monastyrysky District Hospital in western Ukraine made a plea to President Volodymyr Zelensky for protective gear as the number of infected doctors and nurses in the area reached 32. 

“We can’t fight coronavirus with our bare hands,” says an ambulance paramedic in the video. “We need masks, gloves, hazmat suits, medications, tests.”

Monastyryska district, which has a population of about 27,600, is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Ternopil Oblast, the third worst-hit region in Ukraine. As of April 2, the district accounts for 83 out of 111 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the oblast. A lot of them are among medical workers. 

Critical shortages of protective gear have caused frontline medical staff around Ukraine to become infected with COVID-19 and has undermined the country’s fight against the pandemic. Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast reported that four medical workers contracted COVID-19 at a local perinatal center. Chernivtsi Oblast reported on April 2 that 10 doctors had tested positive. 

But the clinic that has been hit the worst so far is the central hospital of Monastyrysky District in Ternopil Oblast. The hospital has 240 employees, 42 of them doctors. Nearly 10 percent of its staff — seven doctors and 14 nurses — tested positive for COVID-19. 

For a regional hospital, this is a heavy blow. 

“The number of infected (staff) is significant. We already have been short of some specialists,” said Vitaliy Trishchuk, head of the laboratory in the hospital and leader of the district’s trade union of medical workers.

Moreover, several immunocompromised nurses decided to quit their jobs, fearing infection, according to Vasyl Ferents, head of the surgery department at the hospital, which has been repurposed into the infectious disease unit for the time of the pandemic. 

Ferents himself is suspected of having COVID-19. He is currently in self-isolation awaiting laboratory test results.

Another major medical center in the district, a primary health center, is also affected. Three general practitioners and eight nurses working there tested positive. Its director, Andriy Mushynskyi, is reportedly also infected. 

General practitioners on the front line of the fight against the pandemic have been especially exposed to infection, since they are the first to come into contact with patients, who are often unaware of carrying the virus. 

Epidemiological analysis established that “patient zero” in Ternopil Oblast was a general practitioner from Monastyrysky District. And a nurse from that district’s hospital was among the first infected. 

Currently, Monastyryska, the district center with a population of 5,500 people, has one general practitioner left — the rest are infected. General practitioners from surrounding villages had to step in and provide consultations to patients by phone.  

Shortages

The Ministry of Health included the Monastyrysky District Hospital on the list of 240 hospitals around the country prepared to treat patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Mild cases are treated on an outpatient basis. 

According to official data, the hospital is equipped with five lung ventilators, 55 beds in the infectious disease unit, five anesthesiologists and a total of 12 general practitioners, pediatricians and infectious disease specialists.

At a press briefing on March 25, the new governor of Ternopil Oblast, Volodymyr Trush, called Monastyrysky “one of the best hospitals in the oblast.” 

However, locals say this is far from reality. 

Pavlo Dron, deputy head of the Monastyrysky District Administration, says the hospital is short of medications, medical equipment, protective gear and test tubes, which limits testing for the virus. 

He told the Kyiv Post that the hospital has three anesthesiologists, one infectious disease specialist, 18 beds ready for coronavirus patients and only one lung ventilator. One more lung ventilator has been borrowed from another hospital. 

“The hospital didn’t have anything, even disposable shoe covers,” said volunteer Mariya Krainyak, who has been helping to collect money and order supplies for the hospital. “I don’t want to make an assessment of the authorities’ actions, but what needs to be done isn’t being done.” 

The hospital has been raising funds to purchase a new lung ventilator. Local residents have chipped in to help buy vital equipment such as goggles, thermometers and gloves. This equipment is not only for doctors. It is also distributed to firefighters and rescue workers who have been tasked with disinfection work since the district had one person employed as a disinfector. Volunteers sewed hazmat suits and masks for doctors and nurses.

This week, Dron said, the hospital received 180 respirator masks, 500 medical masks, 1,000 pairs of gloves, 100 hazmat suits — an amount sufficient for a few days of safe work. 

On April 2, Deputy Health Minister Viktor Lyashko said he would visit the coronavirus-stricken district for inspection. 

Neither Governor Trush, nor his administration’s press service replied to the Kyiv Post’s requests for comment.