Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) The European Commission has spelled out how the EU plans to provide medical care to Ukrainian refugees. Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, told an informal meeting of EU health ministers that it vital they coordinate efforts to welcome and support displaced people.
“Many of them are vulnerable: women, some of them pregnant, children, older people, people with chronic diseases, disabilities and mental health issues”, she stated.
Kyriakides recently visited the border between Poland and Ukraine, where she was able to take account of how neighbouring countries are providing refugees with necessities, including healthcare.
“We are collectively sending medical equipment, medicines, beds, and much more to Ukraine and neighbouring countries, through the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism and the Emergency Response Coordination Centre”, she noted.
The EC has set up an EU solidarity mechanism to help with the medical evacuation of people in need of specialised care. “We have so far secured over 10,000 beds in hospitals of other member states to transfer patients in need of care.”
Kyriakides said it was important to help the national healthcare systems of countries neighbouring Ukraine so that they can handle the influx and to ensure that they are not overwhelmed.
The EC was joining forces with civil society, health professional associations and industry “to offer medical care and mental health support to Ukraine, and I am extremely thankful for that”, she noted.
The Commissioner announced that experts would meet regularly to ensure improved improve cooperation at the EU level with ” health and civil protection authorities and with the World Health Organization.”
The EU must show solidarity now more than ever, she said, maintaining that the crisis was unlikely to end soon. The coronavirus crisis had “united and made us stronger”, and this, she believed, wold help when it came to supporting those in need, working together “to face this very difficult situation.”
