Pančevo Hospital Projects
July 6th, 2018 – New Prostate Biopsy Kit delivered to Pančevo Hospital
Subsequent to SAMA’s donation of new ultrasound system they inquired whether SAMA would be able to provide the Prostate Biopsy Kit. The Hospital in Pančevo serves about 30,000 people in South Banat region, they have 32 beds in the urology ward, they do about 15,000 patient visits, and about 700 surgeries per year. The more that they can do in Pančevo the less people will need to be sent to either Belgrade or Novi Sad, improving the quality of the care and patient satisfaction.
July 27th, 2017 – New Ultrasound System delivered to Pančevo Hospital
The new Mindray DC-N3 Ultrasound System was delivered to the Hospital in Pančevo. The new system will greatly improve the quality of health care for patients in Pančevo Hospital, enabling doctors to provide complete diagnostic treatments within the Urology Department. The funds for this donation were collected at the SAMA Walk in Washington DC and the SAMA-Canada Walk in Toronto, Canada.
Media Coverage
Pančevo Hospital Facebook page:
Pančevo Hospital Visit – October 2016
Pančevo Hospital serves around 300,000 people across the South Banat region. SAMA first visited Pančevo Hospital during our trip to Serbia in October 2016 (trip report).
The internal medicine and hospital reception departments are in a particularly bad state, with poor sanitary conditions, water leaks in a number of places, and old and inadequate furniture. Both of these departments are in desperate need of major renovations, however the cost of these projects is way beyond SAMA’s current means.
Pančevo Hospital Visits – December 2016 and March 2017
During subsequent visits (December 2016) and discussions (March 2017) with Dr. Slobodan Ovuka, director of the hospital, we learned that government funding for these renovations has been secured, and that the renovations should start in June 2017. We certainly hope this will be the case, since current conditions at the hospital are absolutely below the minimum requirements for any type of health care facility.
While discussing alternative options for how SAMA can help hospital in Pančevo, it was brought to our attention that the urology department lacks a functional ultrasound system. Instead urology patients are taken to the radiology department, which is quite remote, even for basic diagnostic screenings. In 2016, the hospital performed 1,600 ultrasound screenings for urology patients through the radiology department. Having a new ultrasound system will greatly assist hospital staff by increasing access to ultrasound screenings, improving the quality of treatment, and providing greater patient comfort overall.
The system we would like to procure is the Mindray DC-N3. The cost of this system is about $17,000 USD, and we will be collecting funds to purchase this system at upcoming SAMA walks in Washington DC and Toronto. Please help us support this very worthy cause to provide a functional ultrasound system for the urology department at Pančevo Hospital!