Romania currently hosts over 82,000 refugees from Ukraine, according to the latest data from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (14 November). Over a year and a half into the conflict, Ukrainian refugees in Romania continue to face various barriers and difficulties in accessing the medical services they need. Often, they find themselves unable to solve these challenges independently and struggle to comprehend the necessary steps for receiving medical assistance. In some cases, they temporarily return to Ukraine for treatments or necessary medical services.
Key issues include language barriers, lack of information and clear procedures for accessing medical services, as well as cost-related obstacles.
At the Independent Midwives Association, we operate a Support Call Center for Ukrainian refugees, providing rapid assistance for reproductive health, family doctor registrations, specialist appointments, translations and support for victims of gender-based violence.
With the help of our Ukrainian, English and Russian-speaking colleagues, we handle cases and help women receive comprehensive specialized services.
Our services include navigation in the medical system, assistance, midwifery services, reproductive health services, contraception, vaccination, psychological counselling, translations for the medical consultations and support. We have four main objectives:
Brainstorming Event
Long waiting lists in the public health system, cumbersome or unclear procedures, cost-related barriers, language barriers are some of the challenges faced by refugees in accessing medical services in the public system.
Our commitment to improving access to healthcare is ongoing. In early November, we organized an event in Bucharest that brought together refugees, doctors and managers from medical institutions collaborating with our association to provide medical services for refugees, healthcare professionals, reproductive health experts, primary care providers and gender equality experts. The main goal was to create a collaborative environment where everyone actively engaged in exchanging ideas and identifying solutions related to the challenges in accessing healthcare services and promoting the rights of refugees.
The event provided an opportunity to openly share challenges encountered in the Romanian medical system and positive experiences where Ukrainian refugees received the necessary medical services.
Lesia K. attended our event with her father who is suffering from cancer and told us that, thanks to our association, she found a family doctor in Bucharest and her father can continue the treatment he needs for free. She and her children have registered with the family doctor and Lesia says she now has someone to examine her children if they fall ill and prescribe the necessary treatment.
Yuliia B., present at the event, received assistance in scheduling an appointment with a cardiologist and obtaining an MRI investigation of her spine. Her daughter, Anna, has also had all the necessary examinations by an endocrinologist, pediatrician and gynecologist and will soon receive the long-awaited HPV vaccination.
Olena T., in Romania for over a year, needed a neurosurgeon when she arrived in Romania. She found out from an acquaintance about our association and was thus able to register with a family doctor and afterwards to benefit from the necessary investigations, which until then she had found with difficulty and had had to pay for.
For Svetlana D., the language barrier posed the most significant challenge. Upon arriving in Romania, she struggled to find a family doctor in Bucharest with whom communication was difficult due to the lack of a translator. After discovering our association, she easily registered with another family doctor, allowing her to schedule specialized investigations for her daughter.
These are just the stories of a few of the 20 refugees who were present at the event. AMI has offered support for over 100.000 cases in the last 3 years.
Their feedback on the obstacles faced is invaluable and contributes significantly to our collective efforts to improve access to medical care and support for vulnerable communities.
The event also highlighted that long waiting times for appointments are due to excessive workloads, with each family doctor having up to a thousand patients on their list, leading to significant delays. In these circumstances, translation services for medical documents, consistently provided by the Independent Midwives Association, become even more crucial to remove a barrier and ensure that the limited consultation time is used more efficiently, with a focus on the patient’s needs.
We have also identified the need of informing refugees on how the medical system is organized in Romania and what are the differences with the Ukrainian health system. Many refugees are feeling lost when faced with navigating through the local health system. We will continue our efforts to provide refugees with all the needed information that facilitate a better integration and increased autonomy. Another focus for us is to advocate at the national and central authorities and decisional factors to provide translation services for the Ukrainians, because for some of them it’s not possible to learn Romanian language and for others the medical record is too large and too complex to be presented in an approximate language.
”At the Independent Midwives Association, we have been working continuously to improve access to maternal and infant care and reproductive health services. Our aim is to make it easier for vulnerable individuals to benefit from the services they need and not feel abandoned and lost. We were pleased to see significant engagement from refugees, healthcare professionals, experts in reproductive health, gender equality, and gender-based violence prevention. Only together can we promote better access to healthcare services and the feedback we receive helps us improve the services we offer to the most vulnerable among us. Additionally, there are clear issues and solutions identified that we add to our discussions and advocacy efforts with decision-makers and authorities to more effectively address the needs of vulnerable individuals and ensure universal access to quality services in the public system,” conveyed during the event Irina Mateescu, Vice President of the Independent Midwives Association.
Project funded by CORE with American Red Cross funds.
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