Catalan hospital leads Euro healthcare project for migrants and refugees

Among Catalonia’s top hospitals, Vall d'Hebron is aiming to improve access to health care for vulnerable migrants and refugees at a European level, with a project that includes seven countries. The Barcelona-based center is mainly focusing on primary care, mental health and bringing health care closer to new arrivals, as four of the doctors heading the plan announced in a news conference on Thursday. The project that began last April will last three years and is funded by the European Commission with a budget of 1.5 million euros.

The Vall d'Hebron Research Institute is coordinating the project, called MyHealth, which is expected to kick off by mapping the situation of health care among migrants. “First of all we will work on a report in order to find out what the situation is and what resources we have,” said the initiative’s main head, Dr. Núria Serre. Moreover, she stated that the project will in particular look into four centers taking part in the research in Germany, the Czech Republic and Catalonia.

According to Serre, once they have this information, they will develop the “strategies” to help meet the needs of newcomers and overcome “barriers”. Nevertheless, she also said they expect to find different obstacles in every country they study, as in her view, Catalonia is more permeable than the Czech Republic, for example, in granting migrants access to health care. “One of our main challenges will be to adapt these strategies to each context,” she added. The idea is to test the service to be developed so as to be able to offer it to citizens within three years.