MARTUNI HOSPITAL

Imagine a team of dedicated doctors, nurses, and other health workers who unwaveringly tend to the nearly 5,000 residents in the town of Martuni. Now imagine them doing so in a substandard edifice almost a half-century old.

Dedicated to an additional estimated 30 rural communities in the province, the hospital in Martuni currently serves over 1,300 patients a year in spite of its extreme financial limitation and considerable deficits of knowledge in medical technology and standards of practice. With the propensity to increase its patient capacity by as much as 40%, patients dissuaded by the unnervingly dilapidated appearance of the facility commute long distances for medical attention instead of availing themselves of the care just steps away.

Partnering with the Armenian Medical Fund and the government of Karabakh, Armenia Fund is endeavoring to overhaul the struggling Martuni Hospital, transforming it into a state-of-the-art, regional healthcare complex. It will be equipped with pediatric, surgery, infectious disease (including thoracic and pulmonary diseases) departments, as well as therapeutic and auxiliary departments in addition to laboratories, diagnostic units and radiology screening.

Learning from the success of the 2005 undertaking of the Stepanakert polyclinic to the west of Martuni, Armenia Fund is modeling several aspects of Martuni Hospital’s renovation after the former project, including the vital element of staff training. During Armenia Fund’s 2005 construction of the polyclinic in Stepanakert, prominent Los Angeles physician and international healthcare specialist Dr. Alina Dorian provided hands-on training to the staff. Now a fully functional polyclinic and diagnostic center, the Stepanakert staff will be the ones to train their Martuni counterparts.

Tantamount to the ongoing success of the resurrected hospital is the Karabakh government’s involvement, as its Ministry of Health will be charged with maintaining the new facility.

Indeed, the realization of Martuni Hospital is a truly collaborative effort:

• Armenia Fund and the AMF will each provide $300,000.
• The government of Karabakh will contribute $600,000.

The total cost of the project is $1.2 million. Please join us by being as generous as you can be in making healthcare accessible to Martuni, one of the many steps taken by Armenia Fund in improving the quality of life for the residents of Nagorno-Karabakh.