The Luxembourg Ministry of Health has welcomed the decision taken by the Commission on Tuesday 12 January 2016 to provide €5.6 million from the EU Health programme to countries most affected by the refugee crisis.
The Commission's support will go predominantly towards financing the necessary work for the establishment of a personal health record which would help retrace the medical history of migrants and assess their health needs, as well as towards establishing protocols and clinical guidelines, communication tools and capacity building.
In a statement released Wednesday, the Ministry of Health stated that the funding would help develop long-term actions for the medical management and integration of refugees and migrants, which it reported was an objective for which the Presidency had succeeded in achieving consensus at the informal Health Ministers Council, held on 24 and 25 September 2015 in Luxembourg.
Luxembourg's Minister of Health Lydia Mutsch has previously been adamant in the view that refugees and migrants were not only in need of housing, but also of healthcare, such as medical examinations, vaccinations and emergency care, as well as psychological support for the trauma that many individuals would have experienced prior to and during their journey.
Photo by SIP / Charles Caratini
