Primary care of refugees and migrants : Lesson learnt from the EUR-HUMAN project = Menekültek, migránsok az alapellátásban : Mit tanulhattunk az EUR-HUMAN projekt eredményeiből?

In 2015, local wars, starvation and misery in some Middle Eastern, Asian and African countries forced millions of people to leave their homelands. Many of these people migrated toward Europe, reaching Hungary as well. The refugee crisis created significant challenges for all national healthcare systems across Europe. Limited attention has been given to the extent to which health service provision for refugees and migrants has become a task for primary health care (PHC), which has been unprepared as a profession and pressured by the enormous workload. Hungarian primary care was involved only to an extent in the refugees’ health care, as most of the migrants entering Hungary wanted to move forward to other countries.

The need for evidence-based patient-centred interventions to assess refugee healthcare needs, and for training programmes for rapid capacity-building for integrated PHC was addressed by the EUropean Refugees – HUman Movement and Advisory Network (EUR-HUMAN) project, which 7 European countries developed together. The overall aim of the EUR-HUMAN project is to enhance the knowledge and expertise of European member states who accept refugees and migrants in addressing their health needs, safeguarding them from risks, while at the same time to minimize cross-border health risks. This initiative focuses on addressing the early arrival period, transition and longer-term settlement of refugees in European host countries. A primary objective of this project is to identify, design and assess interventions to improve PHC delivery for refugees and migrants with a focus on vulnerable groups. The structure, the main focus and outputs of the project are described and summarized in this paper, providing relevant information and access to educational materials for Hungarian (primary care) physicians.

The EUR-HUMAN project was operated in 2016 under the auspices of the European Commission and funded by the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency (CHAFEA). Orv Hetil. 2018; 159(35): 1414–1422.