Psychological trauma is oftentimes more difficult to solve than current health conditions, Health Minister Alexandru Rafila said on Monday, June 20, World Refugee Day, attending the inauguration of primary care and mental health services at the Integrated Refugee Services Centre at ROMEXPO, Bucharest.
“This friendship has to be proved, and I believe that, so far, Romania has behaved impeccably, allocated many resources, continues to allocate so that Ukrainians can feel safe and hope that in the not too distant future they can resume their normal lives trauma free, because the refugees’ psychological trauma is very important. It is an issue that I talked about on other occasions and if we are referring to children in Romania, we are also referring to refugees, to their children, this psychological trauma I think is harder to comprehend, harder to solve many times than current conditions, which of course are receiving satisfactory medical care at this time,” said Rafila.
He added that Romania has allocated beds in hospitals for refugees and they are extended access to healthcare programmes.
“We need to be prepared to receive them, to provide them – in addition to their subsistence needs – with medical care. We have done it so far, we have many beds allocated for refugees in hospitals in Romania. They have also been extended access to the healthcare programmes of the Romanian Ministry of Health, and of course, both those who applied for refugee status and other Ukrainian citizens qualified for them. We need to find a sustainable solution so that Romania can meet the needs of these people, who, unfortunately, have left their country, their families, their homes and are now on the soil of a friendly country,” the Health Minister showed.
Rafila also said that he will have a meeting with the chairman of the Health Insurance House (CNAS) to address the issue so that family physicians who have offices in Romania can receive refugees, if the refugees have health problems that do not require hospital care.
“Today I have a meeting with the president of CNAS and I will address this topic so that family physicians who have offices in Romania can receive as many of these refugees as possible for simple health problems that do not require hospital care. At each public health department we can make available the list of family physician offices that accept to receive these refugees, but first they have to give their consent, to solve the administrative problems, if they exist,” said Rafila, according to Agerpres.
