United to win: Ukraine and Poland team up to establish major military medical hub

Ukraine and Poland are collaborating on establishing a significant military medical hub to share expertise and provide practical aid, especially in wartime situations.

The director of the Military Medical Institute in Warsaw, General Grzegorz Gelerak, said this in a comment to Ukrinform.

As the Polish general emphasized, the decision to create a large-scale hub in the military-medical sphere between both countries was made during a meeting of representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Poland, in particular, heads of medical units in both armies, which took place in May this year in Kyiv. He noted that the schedule and cooperation plan were determined then.

On the one hand, Gelerak noted that this cooperation will be based on obtaining and analyzing information on the nature, type, and scale of sanitary losses during the war in Ukraine.

"On the other hand, we will provide access to our knowledge and capabilities, which we have thanks to the implementation of several research projects concerning, for example, autonomous platforms for the evacuation of the wounded, means and methods of treating various types of wounds on the battlefield, in particular, burns. We are ready to cooperate so that based on Ukrainian and Polish experience and opportunities in the perspective of the next 3-5 years, we will together create a large hub of the military medical service", – emphasized the director of the Military Medical Institute in Warsaw.

According to him, the implementation of this project from the Polish side is at the stage of consideration by the Ministry of National Defense of Poland.

"We expect that in the next few weeks, we will move to the implementation phase of this plan," the general stated.

Gelerak said that Poland is ready to provide medical assistance to Ukraine in several dimensions.

"First, we want to treat wounded Ukrainian military personnel, especially in medicine, which is currently difficult for Ukraine. For example, maxillofacial surgery is a significant challenge for you [Ukraine -ed.] today. In parallel with the treatment of Ukrainian military personnel, we want to train your personnel so that you are becoming autonomous in this field," the Polish military medic emphasized.

The Polish general emphasized that based on the study of the experience of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) of Polish soldiers who were in Iraq and Afghanistan, the knowledge of Polish doctors in combating PTSD is at the highest level. Therefore, Polish doctors have been sharing their experience in this field with Ukrainian doctors since 2014 and are ready to do so in the future. Gelerak noted that since 2014, about ten groups of Ukrainian doctors have received training at the Military Medical Institute in Warsaw on the issue of countering PTSD. In addition, training with the participation of Polish specialists also took place in Ukraine, particularly in Rivne.

Gelerak emphasized that for the Polish side, the medical side of the experience in the context of the war in Ukraine became a "Copernican revolution" [radical change of views – ed.] and prompted serious changes.

"Knowledge from the war in Ukraine is like a Copernican revolution. We are radically changing our approach to what medical support should look like during hostilities," the Polish doctor emphasized.

In particular, he specified that the issue of at what stage and type of medical care should be provided to wounded soldiers must be deeply reconsidered.

"These are no longer systems aimed not at evacuating the wounded for many hours, but at providing aid near the front line, guaranteeing qualified medical care as soon as possible. This is a completely new experience for us, especially regarding preparing medical aid stations. We must consider the Ukrainian experience, as attacks from Russia frequently target these stations," Gelerak stated.

He added that Warsaw is aware that in the event of potential aggression, Poland could also face this. Therefore, using the Ukrainian experience, Poland wants to change its doctrine.

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It should be noted that since the beginning of the full-scale Russian war against Ukraine, Poland has provided Ukraine with military aid worth about 3 billion dollars.

Poland accepts wounded Ukrainian soldiers for treatment, and a sanitary hub was deployed at Jasionka airport near Rzeszów last year, through which wounded Ukrainian soldiers and civilians were transported by plane to various world countries for further treatment.

Poland offered Ukraine to provide rehabilitation and treatment to 2,500 wounded Ukrainian defenders.

Rubryka also reported that returning from a working visit to Canada and being in Lublin, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky,  presented state awards to Polish citizens: a journalist and a medical volunteer.