Israeli cargo planes took off for Poland on Thursday carrying 17 tons of equipment for the construction of the country’s “Kochav Meir” (Shining Star) field hospital in western Ukraine.
Earlier this week, a medical delegation left for the area to assess the situation and start preparing the site. Doctors, nurses and other medical professionals from across the Israeli health system will participate in the endeavor.
The field hospital is being co-funded by the State of Israel, the Schusterman Foundation and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. It is being overseen by experts from Sheba Medical Center.
Approximately 21 million shekels ($6.5 million) is being invested in establishing the facility, which is expected to treat around 100 patients per day. The hospital is to be named after the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, who was born in Ukraine.
The hospital will provide care to Ukrainian refugees, and will include a delivery room, It will also run a laboratory and X-ray machines. The staff on the ground will be working with Sheba Beyond remote medical center to be able to access the expertise of Israeli doctors overseas.
“This is the least we can do to help the Ukrainian people in the face of a brutal Russian invasion,” Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said earlier this month during a visit to Sheba to discuss the hospital.
