Serhii BaksheievIn a rural village near the Ukrainian entrance line, a bunch of ladies queue quietly exterior a purple and white ambulance, ready to be seen by a physician together with his shaved head dyed the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag.
For a lot of of them, it is their first time seeing a physician because the struggle started greater than three years in the past.
Since 2022, Dr Serhii Baksheiev, 53, has carried out greater than 1,000 gynaecological examinations on girls all through front-line and occupied areas in his kitted out cell clinic – named ‘The Female Shuttle’ and full with a vibrant pink examination chair.
Serhii Baksheiev“It is a humanitarian volunteering mission. It is for individuals who need assistance, in locations the place there aren’t any docs or hospitals, and it is completely free,” he says.
The struggle with Russia has positioned an enormous pressure on Ukraine’s healthcare system, with greater than 1,940 assaults on well being amenities because the invasion, in keeping with the World Well being Group (WHO) – making it the very best quantity in any humanitarian disaster to this point – and with a major improve in these assaults since December 2023.
When the struggle started, Dr Baksheiev, who’s an obstetrician and gynaecologist, initially spent his days in a bunker in Kyiv serving to to ship infants as bombs fell above.
The concept for an on-the-road clinic got here to him, he says, after later medical volunteer missions to the entrance line revealed the dearth of amenities as a result of medical centres and hospitals had been utterly destroyed.
“We went to Kharkiv and Chernihiv, which have been very broken, and probably the most tough factor was not having the ability to present gynaecological companies as a result of there have been no instruments and tools, as a result of every part was ruined,” he says.
Dr Baksheiev and his staff must use something out there as an examination desk, together with previous sofas, which means he must kneel on the ground to conduct examinations.
Right this moment, strolling across the electrical car, it is clear Dr Baksheiev is extremely happy with its capabilities: it has been kitted out with every part he and his staff may wish in these distant areas, together with an ultrasound machine and medical tools to hold out minor surgical procedures.
Serhii BaksheievThroughout a two-day mission the staff can carry out as much as 80 colposcopies – the place they study the cervix and vulva for indicators of cancerous or pre-cancerous tissue.
The work is essential to the individuals dwelling in these distant areas.
His visits to small rural villages occupied by the Russians are sometimes carried out in secret. He and his staff slip in for a day or two to hold out their examinations and go away earlier than they’re detected.
Figures offered by Ukraine’s public well being ministry and seen by the BBC present detection charges for ovarian and cervical cancers are down by 17% and 10% respectively since 2020.
And when docs like Dr Baksheiev do get into these areas to carry out examinations, they’re discovering a better than common incidence of malignant tumours.
Serhii BaksheievOn common, as much as 4% of all girls are recognized with malignant tumours after being examined, in keeping with FRIDA Ukraine, the medical organisation Dr Baksheiev volunteers for.
Dr Ulana Supron was Ukraine’s well being minister from 2016 to 2019. She says there’s a concern concerning the “ticking time bomb” of well being outcomes because the struggle drags on.
“Within the public well being neighborhood, there positively is lots of fear about what is going on to occur because the struggle continues,” she says.
“Not solely when it comes to bodily well being, but additionally psychological well being – as a result of there’s a fixed stress, fixed psychological trauma taking place.”
Dr Supron says the federal government has managed to partially or totally rebuild as many as 964 medical amenities that have been broken by Russia.
“They’re working carefully with the WHO and with different worldwide organisations to attempt to provide you with a plan on how we will rebuild the well being system that was in place previous to Russia’s invasion,” she provides.
Regardless of a most cancers prognosis himself in September 2024, Dr Baksheiev continues to volunteer and supply remedy to girls throughout the nation.
“Aside from the medical examination, you additionally hear them out as a result of lots of sufferers have tales about how the Russians attacked their villages,” he says.
“So we aren’t solely docs, we are the therapists for these sufferers.”
