This Mobile Hospital Travels To The Most Remote Areas In Greece

Four to 20 hours by sea. This is the length of the journey that is required, in some cases, for a simple medical examination. This is a reality faced by thousands of Greek people living on remote islands and hard to access regions of the country. The minimal health infrastructure and lack of medical specialists in close proximity compel them to make long journeys to get the appropriate medical care.

 

The question was simple, could a hospital travel to the country’s most remote areas, enabling the locals to access to a wide variety of medical services? Even though, at first, the idea seemed impossible to implement, the Mobile Medical Units (MMU) program was created in 2014 at the initiative of and with the exclusive support of the SNF. The program is implemented by the NGO Regeneration & Progress in collaboration with Health Units S.A., under the auspices of the Ministry of Health and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

 

Once a month a group of physicians, qualified nurses, and technical staff leave their families and put their personal obligations behind in order to provide their services and to ensure that more people have free access to comprehensive health services.

 

Since the program was created in 2014, 39 missions have taken place in areas such as Kastelorizo, Kasos, Tilos, Agios Efstratios, Agrafa, Anafi, and Schinoussa. More than 13.600 patients have been examined and 23,968 medical tests have taken place.

 

Watch this inspiring video about the significance of giving back to the community and working selflessly for the common good.