The European Union has secured over 10,000 hospital beds across the bloc for patients who have fled the war in Ukraine, Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides announced Monday on a visit to Poland.
“We have set up a European system which will allow us to transfer, in a safe and swift way, those patients in need of treatment,” she said. “It is important that those people, those vulnerable people, patients, are allowed to continue with their treatment.”
The hospital beds would allow for the transfer of sick children, cancer patients, patients with burns or those needing intensive care who have arrived in the EU.
Kyriakides was in Poland on Monday at the Korczowa border crossing. She also visited a hospital where she saw children from Ukraine being treated for cancer, and saw how vaccination centers are being set up for coronavirus jabs as well as children’s immunizations so they could continue their vaccine schedules, she said.
“We are in a very difficult situation. The number of refugees flowing in is growing day by day,” Polish health minister Adam Niedzielski told the joint press conference, adding that more than 100,000 people per day are arriving in Poland.
Over 1.7 million refugees have left Ukraine, with more than a million fleeing to Poland, according to the latest figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
