Migration’s Health – A Multisectoral Challenge - 27 February 2018 Belgrade, Serbia

As part of the Third Health Program of the European Union, Serbia has been included in the second phase of implementation of the Personal Health Record (PHR)/electronic Personal Health Record (e-PHR) within the EC/IOM action Re- Health2 - Implementation of the Personal Health Record as a tool for integration of refugees in EU health systems, launched later in 2017.

The “Migration’s Health – A Multisectoral Challenge”, organized in the framework of this action by IOM Serbia and the support of IOM MHD Regional Office in Brussels, the event, hosted by the partner Primary Health Centre Palilula was held on 27 February 2018 in Belgrade with the objective to further address and discuss the challenges encountered at different levels in migration health by the different actors involved in the response mechanism at national level.

MHD RO Brussels contributed to the meeting with an introductory presentation on the current migration health developments in Europe, and the presentation to national actors on the experience learned from the implementation of the Re-Health action and current development under its second phase, Re-Health2, in which Serbia is a participating country. MHD IOM Serbia with the local implementation, started two month ago, have already generated over 400 e-PHRs of migrants health assessed in the Asylum Center Krnjaca (Belgrade), among which are over 300 return visits and follow up notifications in the e-PHR. Some migrants whose e-PHR were initiated in Greece, and shown for follow up visit in the AC Krnjaca, Belgrade, were noticed.

In addition, in-detailed information was given on the objectives and contributions, towards and for, newly-arrived migrants and refugees as well as for health care systems on the utilization of the PHR/e-PHR as a universal EU tool for health assessments that aims at improving the continuity of care, making medical records available to health professionals within and from reception to destination countries. Analysis from the Electronic personal health record data base were shown from the Asylum Centre Krnjaca by the local epidemiologist.

The meeting was attended by around 60 key stakeholders in migrant’ health in Serbia, representatives from the Serbian Ministry of Health and Interior, the Commissariat for Refugees and Migrants, Ministry for Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs, the Serbian Institute for Public Health, WHO, as well as the UNHCR, and NGOs providers CRS, DRC, MsF , MdM who all contributed and engaged in the discussions and presentations and were very positive on the initiative.