Valery Vechorko was born on August 1, 1973 in the village of Gorodnoye, Stolin Region of the Belarussian SSR. He is Chief Physician at Filatov Municipal Clinical Hospital No.15 of the Moscow Healthcare Department. Holds a PhD (Medicine) and is an associate professor.
After graduating from medical college, he was appointed to the Chernobyl evacuation zone where he worked as an ambulance paramedic.
He graduated from the Minsk State Medical Institute in 1999 and from Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University in 2006. In June 2016, Valery Vechorko was appointed Chief Physician at Filatov Municipal Clinical Hospital No.15.
On March 20, 2020, as part of the efforts to counter the coronavirus epidemic, the Moscow Healthcare Department decided to convert the Filatov Hospital into a centre for the treatment of coronavirus patients.
To achieve this, a response centre was established under the guidance of Valery Vechorko. Within seven days, the hospital was fully repurposed to admit patients with the novel coronavirus infection. The hospital personnel worked around the clock.
At that time, the hospital had over 1,300 patients. Within three days, they were discharged or transferred to other healthcare facilities where they continued to receive the necessary treatment.
Valery Vechorko said that from the outset, one of the hospital’s priorities was to ensure the safety of medical personnel. Telemedicine technology was used for consultations and multidisciplinary meetings with colleagues, and leading professors consulted patients in real time. At the initiative of the chief physician, the hospital doctors have been actively sharing their experiences with their colleagues in the regions via videoconferences.
Between March 27 and June 6, 2020, the Filatov Hospital provided treatment to over 10,700 patients with suspected novel coronavirus infection, including more than 2,500 in the intensive care unit. As many as 9,540 of them have been discharged. The hospital doctors also performed over 650 operations.