Journal des pratiques avancées en soins infirmiers

Emergency and Common Medical Care and Security Measures for Persons in Migrant Camps in the Czech Republic

Abstract

Pelikan A, Scurek R, Ptacek M, Pelikánova I

Background: In reaction to the large increase of migrants in Europe in the year 2015, it was necessary to make some arrangements to reduce the security and social risks possibly ensuing from the migrant inflow into the Czech Republic. The migrant camps were established and several services started to be provided, including common and emergency medical care. The common medical care is provided by medical staff in camps, the ambulance services are provided by the local ambulance service on the basis of a special contract. Because of the increasing number of events when the ambulances were abused, it was necessary to limit the amount of such events. An unusual solution with checking the necessity of ambulance interventions was accepted with good results. Methods: The arrangement of verifying the legitimacy of the ambulance intervention was introduced and accepted after several cases of abusing the ambulance service by people in migrant camps were encountered. The evaluation of the necessity of sending an ambulance car to the camp was made by discussion between the head doctor in the camp and the ambulance service control centre. Results: The experience of doctors in refugee camps shows that the steps taken in order to prevent the abuse of emergency services work well. Simultaneously, no delay in the delivery of acute medical care has been registered after the agreed measures were adopted. Conclusion: This article focuses on the specific aspects of the system of common and acute medical care in the camps for refugees and migrants in the Czech Republic. In reaction to the large increase of migrants in Europe in the last year, it was necessary to make some arrangements to reduce the security and social risks possibly ensuing from the migrant inflow into the Czech Republic. First, it is important to have suitable facilities for migrating people. The fundamental requirement for a human being is medical care. Because of frequent abusing ambulances–where anesthesiologists work-by migrant people in camps, special rules and agreements for acute medical care in migrant camps had to be adopted. Those rules, unusual in the Czech Republic, have already saved a significant number of senseless ambulance interventions