Narodnia Lichnytsia

Narodnia Lichnytsia [Народня Лічниця; People's Clinic]. A society established in Lviv in 1902 to provide free medical care to residents of Lviv and all Galicia regardless of their religious or national affiliation. Its chief founder was Yevhen Ozarkevych, and its patron and main financial supporter was Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky. The society operated an outpatient clinic (est 1903) that consisted of four departments, internal medicine and pediatrics, surgery, ophthalmology, and gynecology. In 1905 a dermatology department was added; it was followed by dental, ear, and urology departments. The clinic’s operation was disrupted by the First World War and revived by Ivan Kurovets. In 1937 its staff of 17 doctors treated 41,000 patients. During the 1930s the society built a 100-bed hospital, financed through public donations, with the assistance of the Ukrainian Physicians’ Society. Known as the Ukrainian Hospital of the Narodnia Lichnytsia in Honor of Metropolitan Sheptytsky, the facility was opened officially in 1938. Besides providing medical care, it served as a research and specialization center for Ukrainian doctors, whose access to university clinics and state hospitals was severely restricted by the Polish government. The directors of the Narodnia Lichnytsia hospital were Ozarkevych (1903–14), B. Ovcharsky (1918–21), Sylvester Drymalyk (1921–3), Kurovets (1923–31), and T. Burachynsky (1931–9). In 1944 the society was dissolved by the Soviet authorities, and its hospital was integrated into the state health care system.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]