Refugee patients from Ukraine who arrived in Poland after the start of the Russian invasion have already been transferred for care in Italy through the mechanism set up at EU level, Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakidou said during an informal teleconference of EU Health Ministers on Tuesday afternoon.
In her intervention, Kyriakidou also mentioned the need to provide vaccines for Ukrainian refugees as the vaccination rates for COVID-19 and other diseases in the country are quite low.
As the Commissioner said, a European solidarity mechanism has been set up for medical transfers of refugees in need of specialised care so that patients in Member States on the border with Ukraine can be transferred to Member States where beds are available, including for child patients, newborns and their mothers, cancer patients, burn victims and people in need of intensive care.
As she said, the first child patients have already been transferred from Poland to Italy where they received specialised care.
Furthermore, the EU can, in coordination with the World Health Organization and health experts at national level, set up coordination points for patients at the border with Ukraine "in order to make an initial diagnosis, determine whether they are urgent cases and identify hospitals for transfer", he said.
As stated in a Council statement, Health Ministers welcomed the creation of the solidarity mechanism and agreed that there is a need to give priority to child patients. CNA
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