On Friday afternoon, 5 February 2021, the Serb National Council (SNC) handed over a container to the ward of pulmonology, palliative and long-term care of the New hospital in Petrinja, which will be used for diagnostic procedures on patients.
This is also the hundredth container that has been donated to the area stricken by an earthquake as part of the action “Banija is Our House”, and Milorad Pupovac, president of the SNC, emphasised that this is the only hospital for pulmonary diseases in the Sisak-Moslavina county, and is thus particularly important to help it begin its work so that patients do not have to travel to neighbouring counties and wait long for diagnostic and treatment.
It is worth remembering that the major part of the ward for pulmonary diseases now functions on the premises of the former hospital restaurant, and the municipalities of Vojnić and Krnjak made it operational in mid-January, with only several days of work put into its conversion and renovation.
Doctor Gordana Stjepanović, manager of Petrinja’s Department for pulmonology and prolonged treatment with palliative care, said that hospital staff did not sit idly after the earthquake but have restarted their work, with the help of donations, so that 126 patients were able to undergo diagnostic procedure. The ward can hospitalize 14 patients and the SNC’s donation will greatly facilitate and speed up the work of the pulmonology outpatient clinic since the diagnostic centre will get its own space.
In the aftermath of the earthquake in the destroyed Banija and in cooperation with the Serb Orthodox Church (SOC) and numerous donors from Croatia, Serbia and BiH, the SNC delivered a hundred containers for temporary housing for the affected population. Also, a great amount of building material, humanitarian help in food, clothing and hygiene items have been delivered, while special teams became active in providing psychological-social assistance.
