Migrants and Refugees in Europe: Challenges, Experiences and Contributions

Abstract

Due to the current geopolitical situation more refugees from crisis countries were and will be treated in Europe. In 2015 the number of displaced people reached an unprecedented level, with more than one million crossing into Europe. The migration itself can impair both mental and physical health. Therefore, the provision of medical care for refugees and migrants is a novel and major challenge for the health care systems in Europe. In this article we describe our experiences and contribution in providing medical care for refugees who have newly arrived in Stuttgart, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. Furthermore, we report our experiences from a tertiary referral University center in Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany. We focus on challenges in both the outpatient and the inpatient setting, with a special focus on intensive care patients. In addition, we provide an overview about the spectrum of diseases in this specific patient cohort.

Keywords: Displaced people; European refugee crisis; Health care; Health problems; Migrants; Migration; Refugees.

Fig. 1

Reduction of the ambulance emergency services and the number of patients that presented themselves to the emergency room (ER) at the hospital after installation of a daily physician consultation service at the refugee camp.