World’s best experts in paediatric care will share their expertise with doctors and nurses of Kyiv-based National Specialized Children’s Hospital OKHMATDYT

The Children of Chornobyl Canadian Fund allocated 800,000 Canadian dollars to continue implementing the Ukraine Paediatric Fellowship Program, and in particular, to develop a new partnership with the National Specialized Children’s Hospital OKHMATDYT, under which world-renowned specialists from the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) will provide clinical consultations and specialized trainings to Ukrainian doctors and nurses.

The Ukraine Paediatric Fellowship Program (UPFP) was founded in 2013 through a partnership between Children of Chornobyl Canadian Fund (CCCF), Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC), and SickKids. The Program’s primary goal is to train healthcare specialists to improve paediatric care in Ukraine, so that Ukrainian children can lead long, healthy lives.

The UPFP’s key training formats include:

• observerships at SickKids, where Ukrainian fellows can shadow world-renowned Canadian doctors;
• advisory visits to Ukraine, where SickKids specialists offer clinical consultations, surgical guidance and educational sessions to Ukrainian healthcare professionals.

Over the past five years, 28 specialists from SickKids have visited Ukraine, and helped training healthcare professionals from all over Ukraine.

For the National Specialized Children’s Hospital OKHMATDYT, this partnership is a great opportunity, and the first systemic cooperation with SickKids under the Ukraine Paediatric Fellowship Program. SickKids staff will bring their expertise and provide a robust, specialized training program at OKHMATDYT, helping transform paediatric care for generations. Ukrainian doctors, especially those specializing in oncology and bone marrow transplantation, will have opportunities to participate in observerships and other types of training programs in Canada.

For Ukraine, this is a major investment, not only in the future of the hospital and paediatric care, but also in Ukraine’s human capital. It is essential that Ukrainian little patients feel the benefits of the ongoing national healthcare system transformation.  

In July, the inter-professional team of highly qualified experts from SickKids made a one-week visit to Ukraine to conduct an on-site assessment of the state of care and services in the National Children’s Specialized Hospital OKHMATDYT. The Canadian experts worked closely with the OKHMATDYT's administration, and met with the largest charitable organizations and foundations that had been supporting the hospital for many years. Based on the assessment results, the SickKids team presented preliminary recommendations for leveraging current strengths, optimizing operational processes and enhancing capacity in OKHMATDYT.