28 February 2022 - Health Minister Vili Beroš said on Monday that Croatia would provide health care for refugees from Ukraine, as well as all necessary medical assistance for the wounded if the need should arise.
Croatia already helped treat the wounded from Ukraine in 2014 during the annexation of Crimea. At that time, we offered help with taking care of a total of 10 wounded persons, and eight of them were treated at Zagreb's KB Dubrava hospital, mostly persons with gunshot wounds to arms and legs, who arrived in Croatia in the final phase when treatment had to be completed and rehabilitation carried out, the minister recalled.
The manner of caring for the wounded will be agreed at the European level, and Croatia is willing to participate because Croatian doctors have extensive surgical experience in treating such patients, Beroš told Hina, adding that he also talked about it with the Ukrainian ambassador to Croatia.
Beroš considers that it would be more functional to establish a health centre for the wounded near the Ukrainian border, for example in Poland, and have medical staff, including Croatian doctors, participate in the treatment at that centre.
As for health care for Ukrainian refugees coming to Croatia, it will be provided to everyone from the place of entry in Croatia to the place where they will stay for a longer period of time.
Medical triage at points of entry into Croatia
Therefore, in addition to the government's interdepartmental working group for the reception of refugees, an expert working group was established at the level of the Health Ministry to provide specific health care to those people.
Beroš said that medical emergency teams would provide medical triage at points of entry into Croatia. These will include county institutes of emergency medicine and public health institutes since the COVID crisis has not ended yet, refugees have to be tested and their vaccination status has to be recorded, he said.
Ukrainian refugees fill out a questionnaire from the Croatian Red Cross upon entry, answering also questions about recovering from COVID, vaccination and chronic diseases, so that they can receive all the necessary care.
