South Central Ambulance Service sending medical equipment to Ukraine to support field hospitals

010422-scas ukraine donations
Paramedic teams load up lorries heading to Ukraine. Credit: ITV News Meridian

South Central Ambulance Service is sending enough vital medical equipment to maintain a Ukrainian field hospital for up to two weeks. 

Volunteer teams have been collecting decommissioned medical supplies and equipment from across bases in Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and north Hampshire.

Another lorry left the Boundary Park Sports centre on Friday (April 1) full of equipment including neck collars, stretchers, blankets and field dressings. They will help treat injured soldiers and civilians while they await emergency surgery in hospital.

Kate Ellis, a Paramedic Team Leader in Oxfordshire who has been helping to coordinate the SCAS response, said: “The response we have seen throughout the organisation has been incredible from the very start and we have now ramped it up further with the donation of medical supplies and equipment which we know are so desperately needed in the conflict zones."

She added: “This will help to ensure people can receive care for up to 24 hours while they await emergency surgery in hospital, meaning there is the potential for this work to help save hundreds, if not thousands, of lives."

As of 31 March, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had recorded 3,167 civilian casualties since the launch of Russian invasion on 24 February – 1,232 killed and 1,935 injured – with the actual figures likely to be considerably higher. 

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Paramedics and volunteers are loading up lorries to drive to Ukraine. Credit: ITV News Meridian

The team at SCAS has also been inundated with first aid supplies (bandages, plasters, dressings), over-the-counter medicines, food, refreshments, camping equipment, baby and child clothing and baby items including nappies, wipes, formula and bottles.

SCAS is looking for volunteers to come down to Boundary Park between 9am and 9am on Saturday (April 2) to help load and pack the vehicles.

The lorries will be driven by Ukrainian nationals who will leave Didcot on Saturday evening at 9pm for their final destination of a depot in Lviv in Eastern Ukraine where they will be unloaded and the supplies taken further into the country by humanitarian groups.