Children’s Memorial Health Institute

Children's Memorial Health Institute
The main building of the hospital complex
Geography
Location	Warsaw, Poland
Organisation
Affiliated university	None
Patron	None
Services
Emergency department	Yes
Helipad	Yes
Beds	550
History
Founded	15-10-1977
Links
Website	http://www.czd.pl
Lists	Hospitals in Poland

The Children's Memorial Health Institute (Polish: Instytut "Pomnik - Centrum Zdrowia Dziecka", literally "Children's Health Memorial Centre Institute"; CMHI or CZD) is the largest and best-equipped institute of paediatric healthcare in Poland. Located in Warsaw and directly subordinate to Poland's Ministry of Healthcare, it is also one of leading teaching hospitals in Poland.

The centre employs roughly 2,000 physicians and staff, and includes 17 wards and 29 disease-specific out-patients clinics. It collaborates with Poland's leading medical schools as well as non-governmental organizations, such as the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity. As many of the children treated there require long-term therapy, the Centre also includes a pre-school, a primary school, gymnasium and an academic high school.

On 20 June 1965 Ewa Szelburg-Zarembina, a noted writer and Holocaust survivor, published a lengthy article in Warsaw's Życie Warszawy daily, in which she suggested that the World War II martyrdom and heroism of children should be commemorated with a construction of a memorial.

Let those children who suffered and died only because they were children of this land, those children who suffered and died because they defended the freedom and honour of the Polish nation and state, and the most important treasure of humanity, peace and justice, let them receive from us, the living, a sign of undying memory. Let our witness to their heroism and suffering be more than just a small part of what the nation venerates. They deserve an enduring, separate and exclusive expression of our memory.

Soon her appeal was endorsed by both medical, social and WWII veteran societies, including the Polish Paediatric Society, Polish Scouting and Guiding Association and the Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy. The deputy chairman of the latter organisation, Seweryna Szmaglewska, herself also a noted writer, proposed that instead of building a typical monument, a memorial hospital could be built instead, commemorating " the heroic deaths and martyrdom of children throughout Poland’s history". The idea was widely accepted. By February 1968 a location was chosen in Warsaw's suburb of Międzylesie (since then incorporated into the city of Warsaw itself), back then a relatively remote location in the forests to the south-east of the capital of Poland, known for its healthy climate. The idea was to build a modern hospital where children would receive comprehensive care going beyond medical treatment, a novel idea in contemporary Polish medical care. The hospital was initially named "Pomnik-Szpital Centrum Zdrowia Dziecka", or "Monument-Hospital Centre for Child's Health".