The Outpatient Department for cancer patients at the General Hospital in Kruševac, which was reconstructed and renovated owing to the support of Mr and Mrs Erne - David and Anka from the USA, long-term donators of the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation - was officially opened today. The total donation for the General Hospital in Kruševac amounts to more than RSD 20 million.
The Outpatient Department was completely renovated and furnished with new medical equipment which includes: high resolution 12-channel ECG, sterilizer and safety chamber for the preparation of chemotherapy antitumor drugs. The donation for the Outpatient Department, worth over RSD 15 million, also includes 16 dialysis electric motor chairs. The Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation and Mr and Mrs Erne donated additional funds to the General Hospital in Kruševac for installing oxygen supply system for 42 new hospital beds and for the accompanying medical equipment required for taking care of the patients in need of oxygen. This enlargement of the General Hospital’s capacities ensures better taking care of COVID-19 patients with complex clinical picture.
Ana Divac, the Founder of the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation and the President of its Managing Board, who attended the official opening of the Outpatient Department for oncology patients, pointed out that from the onset of the pandemic the Foundation managed to provide aid for more than 50,000 people who were in urgent need of support. “Every year we have more and more benefactors in our team who are part of our mission to be support to the ones in need. Today we have more than 700,000 people in that team who have been helping through donations, cooperation, volunteering. Being the biggest individual donators of the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation, Mrs and Mr Erne take special place amongst the friends of the Foundation. Once again, I thank them most cordially for their lavishing support“, Ana Divac said.
“It is a great honor for us to be able to help the health-care system of Serbia in this difficult period of time. We are very happy to be here today, in the General Hospital in Kruševac, birth place of my wife Anka. The donation for the Outpatient Department for oncology patients is dedicated to the memory of our dear family member - Radič Jakšić“, David Erne said. For many years David Erne and his wife Anka have been helping both the citizens of Kruševac and all the residents of Serbia.
Aleksandar Jovanović, Deputy Mayer of Kruševac, underlined that the City of Kruševac and the Ministry of Health made regular investments into the Hospital and that - due to the mentioned investments - the Hospital managed to realize many important investments and modernize its equipment. Mr Jovanović specially thanked the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation and Mr and Mrs Erne, adding that Kruševac-born Anka Erne had never forgotten her fellow citizens, although she had been living for decades on the other continent.
Boban Gašić, Deputy President of the Management Board of the General Hospital in Kruševac, reminded that the cooperation of that health-care institution and the Foundation had started during the “pandemic“ year of 2020 when the central oxygen line was installed in the intensive care unit of the Infectious Diseases Department by the donation of Mr and Mrs Erne. The cooperation continued this year by the complete overhaul of the Outpatient Department for cancer patients.
The Outpatient Department for oncology patients executes between 25,000 and 28,000 medical examinations a year, i.e. around 80 examinations every day. Vesna Stević Gajić, MD, Acting Director of the General Hospital said that approximately 30 patients on average receive chemotherapy in the Outpatient Department. “Owing to selfless efforts and donated funds of Anka Erne and her husband David, in cooperation with the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation, for less than a year many projects were completed - installing of oxygen line, reconstruction of lifts and complete furnishing and reconstruction of the Outpatient Department for chemotherapy“, Mrs Stević Gajić said.
The donation to the General Hospital in Kruševac is one of many actions thorough which the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation help people during pandemic, first of all to the medical staff and citizens sick with COVID-19. From the beginning of 2020 the Foundation rendered aid worth USD 650,000.00.