Businessmen partner up with Warwick GP to deliver medical supplies to Ukraine in ex-NHS ambulances

Two businessmen have partnered up with GP who lives in Warwick to help people in Ukraine.

Alf Rajkowski, a local property developer based in Hampton Lucy, has close family ties to Poland. Like everyone, he has watched events in Ukraine unfold with horror.

With friend and business partner, Mark Pritchard Jeffs, and local connections through Snitterfield Tennis Club, he has set up Ambulance Aid.

Ambulance Aid’s mission is to deliver medical supplies where they are most urgently needed using ex-NHS ambulances driven by volunteers.

Ambulance Aid is raising funds to buy de-commissioned NHS ambulances, which cost in the region of £4,000 to £7,000.

Alf and Mark have already purchased two ambulances and are making arrangements to leave the week of April 4.

They will deliver the vehicles to an ambulance service at the Polish-Ukranian border who will arrange collection of the stocked vehicles and cross the border into Ukraine.

Alf and Mark will fly home to the UK.

Working with Alf is Tania Hébert, a Ukrainian GP living in Warwick and working in Coventry. She is the West Midlands lead for Medical Aid Ukraine (MAU), a UK network of Ukrainian and other doctors.

MAU is a collaboration of the charities British Ukrainian Aid and Ukranian Medical Association in UK.

They are cooperating with the Ministry of Health in Ukraine, and have been successful, in contrast with other larger charity organisations, in getting aid out to distant Ukrainian cities in the East, South and North.

Tania and MAU have arranged for a letter of authorisation for the ambulances from the Ukrainian Embassy and Ukrainian Ministry of Health for Customs, as is the case for all their transports, allowing the transportation of medical equipment. Secure routes have been agreed.

Tania, through MAU, is liaising directly with the Ministry of Health and many medical colleagues and friends in Ukrainian hospitals.

They have set up a simple google form for Ukrainian hospitals to formally request supplies, and have IT systems and logistics team which match donations in the UK to requests in Ukraine.

Alf is assisting Tania, as West Midlands lead for MAU, with safe and secure storage where donated medical supplies can be sorted by local volunteers.

Donations in kind are sought from health care settings in South Warwickshire. This includes: NHS trusts, GP surgeries, care homes, dental surgeries, healthcare companies, veterinary practices and pharmacies.

Community donations are also welcomed as some items can be purchased over the counter.

Shops and community facilities are being encouraged to set up 'medicalbanks' - secure collection points - in villages and towns in south Warwickshire. Contact the group for the list of supplies and to arrange collection.

A fundraising page has been set up - (JustGiving page in name of Ambulance Aid) - to fund the purchase of ambulances, and associated expenses such as insurance, petrol.

For more information or to get in touch with Ambulance aid email: [email protected]