Semmelweis University provides health care in Budapest for refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine. In case Ukrainian patients have language difficulties at a clinic, the university’s Department of Languages for Specific Purposes offers 24-hour on-call interpretation in Ukrainian and Russian. The university also gives students, researchers, lecturers the opportunity to continue their work and studies in Hungarian, English or German. The university has collected donations and sent medicines to a Ukrainian hospital.
Providing health care
Semmelweis University, leading medical and health sciences institution in Hungary and in East-Central Europe, is helping refugees from Ukraine in several areas. “The institution provides health care for refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine in all cases, and in the present situation, the university also supplies additional human resource capacity for this purpose, if necessary,” Rector Dr. Béla Merkely said.
Nearly 700 outpatients and inpatients from Ukraine were treated at the clinics of Semmelweis University till end of May. On March 1, a Ukrainian refugee gave birth to a baby boy at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and since then another seven births have taken place there.
An online course entitled "Challenges of refugee health care" is being organized by the 1st Department of Pediatrics to equip local doctors to help the refugees in distress from Ukraine. „We found that the knowledge of doctors and health professionals needs to be updated, as the health situation in Ukraine is different, with different diseases causing challenges: there have been several outbreaks of measles in recent years, which are not common in Hungary; there are more patients with AIDS and tuberculosis, fewer compulsory childhood vaccinations and lower COVID vaccination coverage,” Vice-Rector for Clinical Affairs, Dr. Attila Szabó said.
„In addition to the healing of the sick body, it is of paramount importance that we are dealing with displaced persons, often with broken families, which also requires healing of the soul,” he added.
Support for studies
Semmelweis University is ready to offer students, researchers and lecturers in the field of medicine and health sciences, and those working in patient care, the opportunity to continue their work and studies in Hungarian, English or German.
A few days after the war broke out in Ukraine, on February 28, Rector Dr. Béla Merkely and Dr. Alán Alpár, Vice-Rector for International Studies, met the newly arrived students in person at the János Balassa Dormitory, and informed them that they can continue their studies at Semmelweis University in English, if they wish to do so, after the necessary formalities.
Under the Students at Risk sub-program of the Stipendium Hungaricum program, the government provides support for Ukrainian students and also third-country nationals fleeing from Ukraine to continue and complete their studies in Hungary. Semmelweis University has the capacity to host 250 students under the scholarship program.
Conductive development project
Due to the Russian-Ukrainian war, the three-week intensive conductive development project of the András Pető Faculty (PAK) will continue in Budapest instead of Berehovo, Western Ukraine. For the duration of the course, PAK and its supporters will provide travel, accommodation and meals for the families involved.
PAK, with the support of the Hungarian government, has been running a conductive development program in Berehovo, Transcarpathia, since 2014, with 262 participants so far.
With the help of the local organization of the Maltese Charity Service, the predominantly disabled children in need of development and their families were brought to the Berehovo site of the program, where they attended an intensive three-week education course, delivered by the faculty's conductors four times a year.
Support for accomodation
Semmelweis University dormitories continue to welcome international medical students who previously studied in Ukraine, students from Bangladesh, Ghana, Egypt, Nigeria, India and Iran having been accommodated so far. The students concerned can apply by sending an e-mail to titkarsag.kht@semmelweis-univ.hu.
If necessary, the institution will help more undergraduates and also the families of students with Ukrainian links to find accommodation in Budapest.
Donation collection at Semmelweis University
The university also set up a donation collection point in Budapest, at the Central Warehouse of the Technical Directorate-General.
Donations were awaited on the basis of a predefined list, and which were then sent by the institution to help those affected by the situation in Ukraine, as part of the national fundraising campaign.
The Student’s Union of Semmelweis University also stands in solidarity with all war refugees and strives to provide all support and assistance to displaced Transcarpathian Hungarians and Ukrainians, especially to students and their families with Ukrainian roots studying at the university.
Students affected by the war receive special social support, and students with ties to Ukraine get professional psychological help.
Donation for a Ukrainian Hospital
The Clinical Centre of Semmelweis University donated 2 million HUF worth of medicines and disinfectants to the Uzhhorod City Clinical Hospital, in Western Ukraine. The delivery of the consignment, which was assembled to include items and products that can be used in everyday hospital care, was carried out by the Hungarian team of the Johanniter International Assistance.
