The reconstruction of the Vitebsk Regional Oncology Center, costing Br19 billion, will be completed by July 2011.

October 1, Vitebsk / Sergey Kotovets - BELTA/. After reconstruction, the Vitebsk Regional Clinical Oncology Dispensary should become a specialized scientific and practical center, where optimal conditions will be created for providing effective patient care, as well as for organizing scientific work and the educational process. This task was set today by the chairman of the regional executive committee, Alexander Kosinets, during a visit to the facility, according to a BELTA correspondent. According to the chief physician of the oncology dispensary, Anzhelika Tomchina, this year, after a two-year conservation period, reconstruction work on the surgical building of the dispensary has resumed. The building was commissioned in 1978, and the conditions for patient stay in the building did not meet the requirements for such institutions. The total cost of the project is Br19 billion, of which about Br6.5 billion will be mastered by the end of 2010. Financing is carried out from the local budget. After the completion of reconstruction, the building will house an inpatient facility with 120 beds, an operating and intensive care unit, a clinical diagnostic laboratory, an X-ray room, an ultrasound diagnostics room, and a day hospital with 25 beds. In addition, the Department of Oncology of the Vitebsk Medical University will be located in a separate wing of the building. It is planned to complete the work by July 2011. In addition, about Br3.3 billion is planned to be allocated from the local budget for equipping the building and purchasing medical equipment. Alexander Kosinets is confident that this institution has already outgrown the functions of a dispensary in terms of its potential and, after reconstruction, should take on the tasks of a specialized center, on the basis of which scientific work will be carried out and the educational process will be organized. "Today, the most pressing issue for us is the early detection of oncological diseases, for which it is necessary to introduce and apply the most modern technologies," emphasized the head of the region. And in general, regional healthcare should form a clear and effective system for disease prevention, population medical examination, and only then address issues of providing specialized care, he added. The Vitebsk Regional Oncology Dispensary performs over 6,000 major operations annually. About 450 patients receive specialized care in the day hospital daily, and at least 500 more people seek help at the dispensary's polyclinic. According to Anzhelika Tomchina, in 2010, about 30,000 residents of the region are registered with oncological diseases, their number has increased by 1.5 thousand people since the beginning of the year. -0-