ISSUES ADDRESSED

Romania’s medical system is mainly hospital-centered, with most of the funds allocated to health care belonging to the hospital environment. However, the distribution of population does not show significant differences: 55.17% of the population lives in the urban areas while 44.93% of the population lives in the countryside.

The needs of the rural population are higher and much more serious compared to those of the people living in the urban areas and, unfortunately, urban areas are where specialized health services are currently concentrated.

Even though there are national screening programs in place, their results are often less spectacular than we’d hope, since many patients cannot benefit from them because they encounter difficulties reaching the nearest medical center (lack of money, no means of transportation available etc.). A specific example is that of the screening for cervical cancer - even though the program started more than 5 years ago, Romania continues to have the highest prevalence of cervical cancer in Europe.

We propose an approach that identifies the population at risk, and, more importantly, an approach that directly comes to its aid by traveling to underprivileged villages in order to promote and deliver primary medical prevention services.

MISSION

18 times a year, during the weekend, we gather a multidisciplinary team of doctors (20-30 specialists, residents and medical students) in collaboration with the local authorities. We evaluate the health status of the population free of charge, so that between 150-200 patients receive clinical consults, blood and urine tests, electrocardiograms, abdominal echography and echocardiography examinations and specialty consults: internal medicine, cardiology, neurology, ophthalmology, dermatology, gynecology, pediatrics etc.

The main goal of Caravana cu Medici is to provide residents in rural areas with basic medical care, to raise awareness regarding screening tests and to educate the rural population on taking care of their health. This way, we offer basic medical services and education to the rural population, encouraging them to become more responsible and dedicated to their own health.

VISION

Accessibility

Many of the advances of 21st Century Medicine are basically inaccessible to over 40% of the population, because public money is spent inefficiently. Therefore, we see the mobile units as a solution for people living in rural areas,because they improve access to basic medical services. The mobile units are centered on the most common pathologies (e.g. cardiovascular pathology, pressing issues concerning female health - such as cervical cancer, and viral hepatitis cases identification), . This is one way to offer better and more efficient primary prevention services.

Efficiency

The main goal of the caravans is to complement the general practitioners’ work. Together we aim to create a system that would efficiently filter patients according to their symptoms, thus redirecting only a certain number of cases to the large centers (nowadays emergency centers and large clinics are overwhelmed by minor health problems, such as colds, that can be treated locally). Caravana cu Medici (Medical Doctors’ Caravan) strives to even out the discrepancies between rural and urban areas, by facilitating access to basic medical services and health education to people living in rural areas.

National Network

Our vision is to create a national network where doctors, nurses, healthcare workers and local authorities would regularly provide health care and health education in economically and socially disadvantaged areas.