Preventive check-ups to be carried out to women from Roma and Turkish neighbourhoods in the countryside

Preventive check-ups will be carried out in neighborhoods populated mainly by Bulgarian nationals of Roma and Turkish origin in implementation of the Action Plan with the Health Strategy, the Ministry of Health said in a press release Friday.

A mobile gynecological surgery will start preventive check-ups of over 500 women in the region of Tsarevets, Ahtopol and Sinemorets. The women there have no health insurance and there is no permanent gynecological surgery in the area.

By the end of the year the Ministry of Health will receive two mobile fluorographs and five mobile pediatric units for carrying out immunizations in remote population centres.

A programme for training medical students in working with the Roma and a mediator training programme will be developed.

The medical services received by the Roma were studied under a PHARE programme project "Improving the Situation of Vulnerable Minority Groups with a Special Focus on the Roma". As a result ten mobile medical units will be send to the Regions of Montana, Dobrich, Pazardjik and Yambol for outpatient examinations.

A working meeting organized by the Ministry of Health with the assistance of the Open Society Institute on Friday discussed improving access to health care and the necessary measures for overcoming the problem of socially disadvantaged persons with no health insurance of the ethnic minorities.

BTA