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SWEDISH MEDICAL PROGRAMME The
conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) led to thousands of
civilian injuries and damaged the country’s health care
infrastructure. In 1995, IOM, in partnership with the Swedish
Migration Board, initiated the Swedish Medical Programme (SMP)
to provide medical care for war-injured and other patients for
whom proper treatment was not available in BiH. The first
patients were the victims of the attack on the market place in
Sarajevo in September 1995.
SMP now serves the dual purpose of
building the capacity of the BiH medical system and medical
evacuation. After 1995, SMP was successively extended, parallel
to MEDEVAC, to include Swedish Medical Teams (SMT) to BiH. The
aim was to increase local capacity building and to decrease the
need for medical evacuations abroad. SMP provides an efficient
and integrated solution to the diagnosis and treatment of
patients with difficult medical and surgical problems, while
building the capacity of local medical facilities.
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| IOM’s SWEDISH MEDICAL
PROGRAMME (SMP)
IOM, in cooperation with the Swedish Government, the Medical
Centre for Refugees, the University Hospital of Linköping,
University Hospitals in Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Tuzla, and the
Ministries of Health in BiH, builds the capacity of BiH medical
facilities and provides medical evacuation for BiH patients
through the Swedish Medical Programme.
IOM brings to BiH Swedish Medical Teams (SMT) to perform
complex operations together with local colleagues.
Based on an assessment of the most frequently occurring medical
evacuations, SMTs are sent to BiH to target those specialities
in most urgent need of assistance. The SMTs screen, evaluate and
provide treatment for patients in BiH who would otherwise need
to be evacuated for medical care.
SMP evacuates individual patients (MEDEVAC) who cannot be
treated locally,
due to lack of complex postoperative intensive care, diagnostic
possibilities or specialized equipment.
SMP builds the capacity of local medical institutions by providing on-the job training and sharing of experience
with seminars, workshops and lectures and through donations of
medical equipment. Further capacity building takes place when
BiH health professionals collaborate with SMTs in BiH and escort
MEDEVAC patients. BiH practitioners participate in preoperative
investigations, surgery, postoperative care and medical follow
up for all patients.
BiH medical centres receive MEDEVAC patients from Kosovo.
Due to the success of SMP, BiH medical facilities have improved
their capacity and are now able to receive MEDEVAC patients from
Kosovo for complete diagnosis, surgery, therapy
and follow-up treatment.
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