Launching Medical Life Lines Ukraine

The King’s Health Partners (KHP) Life Lines project is supporting a group of London-based Ukrainian professionals who are restoring old ambulances, filling them with medical supplies and driving them to war-torn Ukraine. KHP’s Tom Smurthwaite finds out more.

Medical Life Lines Ukraine is a philanthropic initiative run by London-based Ukrainian professionals who are raising funds and receiving donations to restore old ambulances, fill them with medical and other essential supplies, and driving them to hospitals in war-torn Ukraine.

This initiative is helping to get urgently needed medical supplies through to support the neonatal and children’s hospitals which have recently been bombed and to military field hospitals.

The group is now supported by the KHP Life Lines project, which is helping to raise funds and obtain supplies to support this south London community organisation. Medical Life Lines Ukraine wants to provide a lifeline to Ukrainian hospitals in need.

As of mid-April, Medical Life Lines Ukraine has raised more than £54,000 via Just Giving.

The initiative has so far delivered eight vehicles to such destinations as Kyiv City Hospital, Mykhailovsky Military Hospital, Boryspil neonatal centre and large children’s hospital Okhmadit. These ambulances brought critically required tactical medicine (trauma kits), first aid kits, surgical and neonatal equipment (portable oxygen concentrator, incubators), as well as other medical supplies and essentials.

The team has achieved that through deploying the monetary contributions from our supporters, generous public donations in our collection centres (Wimbledon, Surbiton, Brentford) and an alliance with other volunteer groups.

To donate or read more about the project, please visit the Just Giving page here.

Life Lines was set up at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to connect families of critically ill patients who were isolated due to visiting restrictions in hospitals. The project has provided more than 1,400 Android tablets set up with  secure online platform aTouchAwayTM, supported with 4G connectivity, to 180 NHS hospitals.

Families are able to meet the clinical teams to ask questions and then connect with their loved ones via the tablets in a secure, safe and dignified environment.

To mark the two-year anniversary of the project, KHP spoke to co-founder Prof Louise Rose to discuss the profound impact of Life Lines, the benefits of partnership working, and the plans for the future. Read the full interview here.