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Ukrainian doctors visit Nottingham hospitals
Three Ukrainian surgeons have visited Nottingham University Hospital NHS Trust (NUH) this week to learn vital surgical skills from experienced NUH colleagues.
The surgeons, who have never been to the UK before, visited NUH to continue their laparoscopic and robotic surgical training. They were invited to extend their training after three NUH surgeons visit them in Ukraine last year, where they trained medics to perform keyhole surgery.
Nazariy Pidhurskyy, Ukrainian Colorectal Surgeon, said: “Laparoscopic surgery allows us to use less invasive methods, meaning less pain, quicker recovery, and faster discharge for patients. It’s a huge benefit to them, and we’ve seen the results firsthand.
“It’s very important for us to share techniques and we’ve had a lot of tips so it’s great. It’s very nice to have such experience.”
Bohdan Stasyshyn, Ukrainian Colorectal Surgeon and Combat Paramedic, said: “It’s a very nice experience because they have a different view on some cases. We have more experience in open surgery, but they basically operate laparoscopically and robotically, so we don’t have such experience.”
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed between NUH and the Ukrainian doctors to facilitate the visit and made NUH the first hospital in the UK to formally sign an MOU with a unit in Ukraine.
Charles Maxwell Armstrong, NUH Consultant Surgeon, visited Ukraine last year with colleagues JJ Reilly, Shane MacSweeney and Elisa Lenzi and said: “I think the thing we'd all take away from the visit is the resilience. It's unbelievable, that they have this drive to prevail succeed, develop, do what they do for their patients. It’s inspirational.”
Albina Kozyra, Ukrainian Junior Doctor, said: “In Ukraine, we don’t have a supervisor when we are teaching laparoscopic surgery, we do it based on our experience. But when the first time a British surgeon came to us, it’s a lot of experience, and we have a lot of good results for our patients.”
Manjeet Shehmar, NUH Medical Director, said: “To hear the environment that they'll happen to work in, the limited resources that they've got and yet are doing amazing things that is just truly inspirational.
"It's fantastic that NUH is able to help in their small way."