A maze of underground corridors, the whirring of drills, dust and people in helmets – in the basements of the regional hospital in Łomża, a modern hybrid operating theatre is being built, the second of this kind in Podlasie, combining the features of an operating theatre and an interventional cardiology treatment room. This is part of a joint project implemented under the PL-UA Program by hospitals from Łomża and Lviv.
To enter the construction site of the new premises, which are to serve patients as early as mid-2026, you have to go down to the basement of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński Voivodeship Hospital in Łomża. Our guides are Dr Emanuel Korzeniec, Coordinator of the Haemodynamics and Interventional Radiology Laboratory and Urszula Dąbrowska, Coordinating Nurse of the Haemodynamics and Interventional Radiology Laboratory.
Safely forward
Dr Emanuel Korzeniec has a pragmatic approach to the development of the laboratory he coordinates. He does not complain or focus on the flaws of the system, but rather plans ahead.
That is why, a few years ago, he began working on a project to create a hybrid room in the hospital that will combine the functions of a treatment room with a full-size operating theatre with a modern angiograph (a device that uses X-rays and contrast to visualise, among other things, the coronary arteries and the heart).
This will primarily benefit patients at high risk of complications during surgery, during cardiogenic shock, and those for whom transport to the reference centres in Białystok (Medical University) and Warsaw (Military Medical Institute) would be too risky. The team will also benefit, as the new room with modern equipment (a new angiograph equipped with a 20-inch image detector) will improve the comfort and safety of the staff’s work.
Essential aid and necessary risk
Dr Korzeniec’s plan was feasible due to the circumstances in which the partners met. It was a time when war broke out in Ukraine.
The support went to the Multidisciplinary Clinical Hospital in Lviv.
Benefits on both sides
The partners jointly prepared a project worth over 2.7 MEUR. As part of the project activities, a hybrid room with modern equipment and the necessary infrastructure will be built in Łomża. The 400 m² basement of the hospital will also house a recovery room, a conference room where training courses will be conducted with the possibility of media viewing of procedures (the project also includes the purchase of specialised software) and social facilities for the team.
The Ukrainian partner, in turn, will equip its facility with cardiac monitors, anaesthesia machines, a defibrillator, a ventilator and an echocardiograph, and will integrate it with specialised cardiology software. At one of the meetings planned as part of the project, back in October 2024, the director of the hospital in Lviv, Oleh Samchuk, told journalists during a press conference:
The PutHeart project also includes preventive measures aimed at residents of both regions, as well as training and study visits for medical staff from both institutions. The official opening of the new facilities at the hospital in Łomża is planned for June 2026.
Learn more about PutHeart project.
