The European Commission (EC) is launching on December 6 a project backed by four million euro from the EU4Health programme, to help improve access to healthcare for Ukrainian refugees and displaced persons benefitting from temporary protection in Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia, the EC said.
The project is supported by the EC, together with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
It will run for 24 months, and aim to strengthen the capacity of national health systems to cope with the influx of persons fleeing the war in Ukraine, and to improve patient access to national health systems during the period of temporary protection, the EC said.
Some of the initiatives to be jointly carried by the three partners include support for national health authorities to expand health coverage for refugees, including vaccination.
The integration of displaced health workers from Ukraine into the health workforce of host countries, as well as efforts to establish and strengthen networks of such workers to enable them to provide the specific healthcare assistance needed by refugees, are also priorities for the project.
“This project is another important step to cement EU-Ukraine cooperation on health matters after the Commission and the Ukraine Ministry of Health signed an Arrangement for Cooperation on Health in June 2023,” the EC said.
Source: Sofia Globe
