Every day the press reports in stock fashion the numbers read out by the presidential spokespeople for the war in the east: “Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed while another seven were wounded in fighting over the last 24 hours… One Ukrainian soldier was killed and another nine were wounded.”
Seven hundred kilometers away in Kyiv, it is easy to gloss over the numbers, particularly if they are in single digits. Then every month or so Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense updates the death toll, which usually attracts a bit more attention. The latest figure was 2,300.
In contrast, the number of injured and their struggles are part of a story which is overlooked sometimes. It’s not a pretty story, with an inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy is, as usual, the main culprit.
The increasing number of wounded soldiers are straining an already overburdened, underfunded and disorganized medical care system, despite the best efforts of some doctors, staff and volunteers.
The Ministry of Defense estimated that 6,341 soldiers have been injured since the war began 16 months ago.
According to an official letter from the Ministry of Social Policy, 1,066 of the 6,341 were seriously wounded. Of this total, 136 are awaiting prosthetic limbs while 43 are undergoing the procedure and another 99 have received theirs, with the government paying for 92 of these operations.
The figures don’t always match.
For example, according to Roman Kashchenko, a senior officer in charge of personnel at Kyiv’s Military Hospital, which claims to have treated more than 5,700 soldiers: “Every second person comes here to be amputated. There are many amputees. Maybe around 40…50 percent. Some are top half, others bottom, but they’ve noticed that the right leg for some reason suffers the most.”
One problem is that there are no official statistics, no register or database and no system for counting the numbers.
Valeria Veryshenyna, a lawyer who volunteers for the Society of Anti-Terrorist Operation Veterans, said that “in this country people are crazy about paper. The General Staff can’t even concretely say who they’ve sent to the east and when. Soldiers’ widows who buried their husbands a year ago are still sent draft papers.”
The lack of databases is one of the reasons why hospitals, especially local institutions, are under-prepared for returnees. No one knows what medicine is in stock where or what equipment is lacking and where, said Veryshenyna.
Efforts are currently under way to computerize data within state institutions. In theory this should shrink the margin for corruption and mean the soldiers are better protected by the state.
In June, the Ministry of Defense announced the creation of database which will record who has been sent draft papers and who has been mobilized. There is also an ongoing pilot project to create a medical information system for military hospitals. Nataly Voronkova, of Volunteer Sotnia, an organization that helps soldiers with their medical and material needs, is working on the project as an adviser to the Ministry of Defense.
So far, Voronkova said they are encountering some resistance: “The doctors are resisting this because it will remove their extra earnings. They are not looking into the future. This is our problem. It’s hard for people to see the bigger picture.”
Sometimes the soldiers pay from their own salaries, which range from Hr 3,000 to Hr 10,000 for treatment or medicine which should be free. Voronkova;s organization tries to help soldiers with the costs.
The Society for ATO Veterans encourages soldiers to write official complaints when they are asked for money, but many don’t. “You have to understand, they’ve already fought over there, they’re not prepared to fight here too,” said Veryshenyna.
The state supplies the bulk of what is required: buildings, tents, equipment, doctors and medical staff, as well as most medicine, said Kashchenko. But food and clothing, along with some expensive types of medicine and operations, are usually provided by volunteers or relatives.
Aside from budgetary constraints, one of the factors hindering treatment, ironically, is Ukrainian anti-corruption legislation, which stipulates hospitals must hold tenders for equipment of more than Hr 90,000, or $4,128. The process can take from one to three months, according to Kashchenko. Often doctors turn to organizations like Volunteer Sotnia to get around the delays or lack of funding.
Appeals for emergency donations are regularly posted on social networking sites by hospital volunteer organizations, especially when there is a spike in the number of arrivals. They call on members of the public to donate anything from surgical gowns, sheets, and cleaning products to money for bone replacement materials and prosthetics.
“At the moment the fate of those injured depends on the patriotism of the doctors and volunteers but the doctors and volunteers can’t work wonders forever,” Veryshenyna said. “The system has to change.”
