The A&E consultant from Cardiff buying an ambulance to send to Ukraine
An A&E consultant from Cardiff is buying an ambulance to send it to Ukraine to help administer vital emergency healthcare amid the Russian invasion.
Dr Mateo Szmidt, an emergency medicine consultant at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil, launched a GoFundMe campaign on Monday to raise £15,000 to purchase the vehicle.
It will be packed full of medical aid before it's driven to the Ukrainian border.
Dr Szmidt explained that he came up with the idea after hearing of a similar initiative in Poland.
"I thought that if they're in need of these ambulances to transport patients the ambulances we use [in the NHS] and that get decommissioned are very good," said Dr Szmidt.
His initiative comes as part of a wider effort by Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board, which manages Prince Charles Hospital.
He said the health board had collected personal items from across its hospitals, such as clothes, and added that "seven big crates of medical supplies" had just been sent to Ukraine.
With the help of colleagues from Prince Charles Hospital to promote Dr Szmidt's campaign within just two days the response has been "amazing" and the target has almost been reached.
"The nurses, doctors, [communications] teams – they’ve all been doing anything they can to send it far and wide," he said.
Dr Szmidt explained that NHS ambulances get sold on once they have been withdrawn from service and that he intends to buy one that has been decommissioned from a private motor company.
"I did try to get an ambulance donated [by the health board], but unfortunately, with the current crisis with ambulances, there are no ambulances being decommissioned from the two sites I spoke to," he said.
The cost of an ambulance varies from £6,000 to £7,000 but he is hoping there will be an "element of negotiation" as it's for a good cause.
"Once the money is raised we're going to be looking at the best one for the best deal," he said. "Ideally we want hopefully any extra funds cover to the fuel and the passage in the [Channel] tunnel."
He said volunteers from the health board had come forward, including a doctor and paramedic, offering to drive the ambulance to the Ukrainian border.
"We already have contacts in Ukraine," Dr Szmidt said. "We've arranged to meet them at the border and hand over the keys and paperwork."
He added that if he manages to get more funding it would be "amazing" send two or three ambulances.
"But the biggest issue is if the conflict escalates it’s going to be much harder to get aid over there," he said.
"We're going to pack in as much as we can into the ambulance. We're waiting if we can get any decommissioned medical equipment from the health board, like defibrillators, that could be donated."
In the past 24 hours, three hospitals have been hit by Russian bombs, in what Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as a war crime.
Three people, including a child, were killed and at least a further 17 people, including women waiting to give birth, were hurt in an attack on a maternity hospital on Wednesday, which also left children buried under rubble.