RCSI Donated USD 250,000 with RC Stara Zagora to a Local Hospital in Stara Zagora city (+GAL)
In early December 2011, Rotary Club Sofia International jointly with the 6110 Rotary District Medical Supplies Network, Inc. in Oklahoma, USA, and Rotary Club Stara Zagora, donated USD 250,000 worth of medical equipment to the Prof. Dr. St. Kirkovich Multiprofile Hospital for Active Treatment (MHAT) in the Town of Stara Zagora.
The initiative is part of the joint Medical Supplies Network, Inc. Project of Rotary Club Sofia International and 6110 Rotary District in Oklahoma, USA, implemented for a third consecutive year. This donation enabled the underfunded hospital in Stara Zagora to update its equipment. During the special press conference, Dr. Nikolay Kolev, Executive Director of the Prof. Dr. St. Kirkovich MHAT in Stara Zagora said that that was the biggest donation the hospital had ever received.
The supplies include operation tables, medical equipment and supplies, wheelchairs, hospital beds, disposable syringes, surgical gowns, disposable medical gloves, IV stands, dental supplies and many other medical items. A number of considerable administrative obstacles among which the impossibility to import the equipment in Bulgaria and its possible redirection to Macedonia, were overcome. The main requirement from the Bulgarian Customs and the Bulgarian Red Cross was the payment of 20% VAT which posed a great challenge to the project team. In the end, the supply of the US donation was done without payment of VAT but with the invaluable help of the Austrian Red Cross. Transportation costs were covered by Rotary Club Sofia International and Prof. Dr. St. Kirkovich MHAT in Stara Zagora.