The renovated obstetrics ward of the Novopolotsk city hospital received its first mothers on the eve of March 8th

The first expectant mothers were received today, on the eve of March 8, at the renovated maternity ward of the Novopolotsk Central City Hospital, as reported to a BELTA correspondent by Vyacheslav Durnov, Deputy Chairman of the Novopolotsk City Executive Committee.

The opening of the ward is a long-awaited event not only for the women of Novopolotsk but also for the residents of Polotsk and nine other districts of the Vitebsk region. Previously, it was planned to build a new maternity hospital in Polotsk between 2012 and 2015. According to preliminary estimates, this would have cost the budget Br120 billion. The Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee and the authorities of Novopolotsk and Polotsk found a more economical option and decided to accumulate funds and direct them to the reconstruction of the five-story building of the Novopolotsk hospital ward, which previously housed the maternity and gynecology departments, with the aim of doubling the number of beds, Vyacheslav Durnov explained. The capital works took less than five months, and the costs were reduced fivefold.

In the renovated building, which can rightfully be called a maternity hospital, the bed capacity has increased to 120 beds. Its technical equipment meets the second level of obstetric and neonatal care. Almost 300 medical professionals will work here, including about fifty doctors – obstetrician-gynecologists, neonatologists, resuscitators, and anesthesiologists. Delivery rooms and operating rooms, an intensive care unit for newborns, and a resuscitation department, as well as postpartum observation wards, are equipped for medical care. Additionally, incubators for newborns, fetal monitors that allow for monitoring the fetus's condition, functional beds and continuous patient monitoring systems, neonatal, changing, and heated resuscitation tables, furniture, and soft furnishings have been purchased.

According to preliminary data, in 2012, for the first time in 16 years, the birth rate in Novopolotsk exceeded the mortality rate.