The Victor Pinchuk Foundation has opened “Cradles of Hope” neonatal centre in Ivano-Frankivsk

On 28 October 2008 a new "Cradles of Hope" Neonatal Centre has opened at the Regional Family Planning Centre in Ivano-Frankivsk. The event took place under the "Cradles of Hope" National Programme initiated by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation.

The Foundation has provided Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Family Planning Centre with the state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment that will enable high quality check-ups and help to detect any potential foetus pathology with great accuracy. The core device in the supplied medical gear is MyLab50 ultrasound scanning system developed by Italian company ESAOTE. In total, the Victor Pinchuk Foundation allocated UAH490 000 for setting up the "Cradles of Hope" Neonatal Centre in Ivano-Frankivsk.

At the very beginning of the cooperation with Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Family Planning Centre, specialists from the Foundation considered the critical need of the institution to have modern medical devices. It's a common knowledge that the top factor impacting the quality and accuracy of prenatal examination is a diagnostic performance of ultrasonic instruments. Unfortunately, the large proportion of the region's medical institutions is equipped with low-grade appliances, making it virtually impossible to diagnose foetus pathologies. None of state medical institution of the region can boast expert-level medical devices. According to the decision made by the Board of the regional Healthcare Department, all pregnant women from the inherited disease risk groups must go through the ultrasound examination in the Regional Prenatal Centre (RPC). Yet the equipment available at the Family Planning Centre, governed by the RPC, is out-of-date and cannot perform top level check-ups. In view of the aforesaid, the Foundation has chosen to focus on adequate diagnostic appliances when setting up the new "Cradles of Hope" Neonatal Centre.

Igor Vakaliuk, Head Doctor of Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Perinatal Centre: "The equipment handed over by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation expands the opportunities for complex assessment of intrauterine condition of a foetus and detection of pathologies on the early stages of its development. To the date it was hardly possible to perform this kind of procedure."

Head of Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Sate Administration Mykola Paliichuk: "At the present time the local budget cannot fully satisfy the need of all healthcare institutions for medical equipment. Therefore, we highly appreciate the help offered to us by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation. By joining efforts of the authorities and business we will make sure that the Ukrainians grow up healthy from the moment they are born."

Victor Pinchuk: "I do respect the efforts made by every single person in Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Perinatal Centre in order to guarantee the right to life for our little ones. I believe that the assistance we provide to the centre will be employed in the most effective way and let us see more happy smiles on the faces of both parents and kids."

The launch of the "Cradles of Hope" Centre in Ivano-Frankivsk is a new step forward in expanding the geography of the Programme that has been functioning for over two years now. During this period of time the Victor Pinchuk Foundation has set up 15 Centres I Chernihiv, Volodymyrka, Ovruch, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Chernivtsi, Bakhchysarai, Izmail, Odesa, Simferopol, Donetsk, Khmelnytskyi, Zhytomyr and Cherkasy. Nearly twenty-four million hryvnya has been used by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation in the period of 2006-2008.