Lviv medical team becomes first globally to achieve SCT Medevac Advanced verification
According to Kozytskyi, international experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) worked in the Lviv region on Friday, October 9. They evaluated the readiness of specialists from the Lviv Regional Center for Emergency Medical Care and Disaster Medicine to operate in accordance with the standard's requirements.
Photo source: Facebook / Maksym Kozytskyi
According to Kozytskyi, immense practical experience underpins this achievement. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, the Lviv Regional Center for Emergency Medical Care and Disaster Medicine has conducted:
The EMT Medevac Ukraine team operates from this center. The team's international certification process began in 2024. That same year, the team registered in the European Civil Protection Pool as a unit specializing in patient evacuation by ground transport.
Andrii Vasko, Director General of the Lviv Regional Center for Emergency Medical Care and Disaster Medicine, explained that the SCT Medevac Advanced standard requires the capability to evacuate critically ill patients by ground transport, particularly during emergencies and under difficult working conditions.
At the same time, the medical team must operate fully autonomously. This means specialists must independently:
Passing verification strengthens the Lviv region's capabilities in disaster medicine and opens new prospects for international cooperation.
According to the Lviv Regional Council, developing the team's capabilities is carried out as part of a project implemented in 2025–2026 with support from the European Commission and co-financing from the regional budget.
The total cost of the project exceeds 32.6 million hryvnias, with more than 8.16 million hryvnias coming from the regional budget.
Under the project, organizers purchased for the team:
In addition, project funds partially financed the purchase of a specialized ambulance.
Background
As reported, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine's Ministry of Health, together with the European Union, partner governments, and support from the WHO, has implemented a medical evacuation program. Under the Ukraine Medical Evacuation (MEDEVAC) program, patients requiring trauma and burn care, oncological care, rehabilitation, or prosthetics received access to life-saving treatment currently limited or unavailable in Ukraine due to the war.
It was also reported that combat medics from the National Police's "Lut" Joint Assault Brigade set a new record in casualty evacuation, delivering a severely wounded soldier from the front line in the Donetsk region to Lviv in less than a day, covering nearly 1,500 km in 20 hours.
Furthermore, medics saved two Ukrainian service members with severe burns thanks to a new targeted evacuation mechanism. Teams transported them from a stabilization point near the front to clinics abroad without delays or wasted time searching for hospitals.
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