ICRC Hospital of Novye Atagi - The Decision To Extend The Hospital

The Decision To Extend The Hospital

The site that was provided for the hospital in Novye Atagi was an old unused school made up of several buildings distributed in a vast compound. The main building became an hospital with two operating theaters, the annex units (sterilization room, admission, emergency room, blood bank, radiotherapy room, physiotherapy and training room, an intensive car unit for a maximum of seven patients and six wards making it possible to receive a little more than 60 patients.

A second building was used as a refectory and pharmacy, the third one became a rest room for the expatriate staff, the fourth was transformed into their residence and the fifth was the workshop. A sixth building was in a rather bad condition and was renovated to serve as administrative offices. The restoration of all these buildings was planned and work quickly started.

The active fighting had stopped since 15 August and the peace agreement between the Russian representatives and Chechen fighters was signed on 31 August in Khasavyurt, Dagestan. As a result the number of patients of the hospital was constantly reducing and there did not seemed to be any need for more hospital beds.

In the event of surge of wounded beyond the capacity of the provided buildings, the ICRC would have accommodated the slightest wounded in tents, as the Norwegian field hospital was delivered with large marquees. In comparison with another ICRC operation in Quetta, Pakistan, the hospital admitted 120 patients in buildings, and whole the capacity being up to 280 by using marquees. The winter climate there being as cold as it is in Chechnya.

Soon there was a discussion about how to increase the capacity of the hospital by constructing additional buildings. The head of office in Novye Atagi at that moment and the head builder however were against this idea. A meeting took place on 24 September. The project of extension was reduced to two rooms. Nevertheless plans were kept for the construction of a new wing for the hospital comprising several rooms, extending the capacity to 150 beds and also with an option to extend the pharmacy and the workshop. The “tent” option was rejected by reasoning that one cannot provide same comfort in a developed country like Russia than in Pakistan.

Once the building work started, the problems of recruitment and monitoring of local staff were amplified. Quickly there were more than one hundred labourers working on the construction site and it became almost impossible to control all the movements on and off the site. In addition the importance and the size of the contracts entered with local contractors caused many frustrations and jealousies among them, further increasing tension.