EUROPE-MIGRANTS/GERMANY DOCTOR German doctors assist with treatment of needy migrants at former Munich army barracks

Record ID: 136014

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/GERMANY DOCTOR German doctors assist with treatment of needy migrants at former Munich army barracks
  • Date: 7th October 2015
  • Summary: MUNICH, GERMANY (OCTOBER 7, 2015) (REUTERS) PAEDIATRICIAN MATHIAS WENDEBORN WALKING PAST SIGN READING (German): "TO THE DOCTOR" WENDEBORN WALKING PAST SIGN ON DOOR READING: "REFUDOCS" PEOPLE SITTING IN WAITING AREA WENDEBORN AND INTERPRETER SPEAKING TO PEOPLE IN WAITING AREA, AMONG THEM 6-YEAR-OLD, CONGO-BORN JOSEPH KUOPANO AND HIS MOTHER JOSEPH AND MOTHER ENTERING PRACTIC
  • Embargoed: 22nd October 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA41KADFUOBXRGUAIGOCLS90TY4
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: As Germany on Wednesday (October 7) reported new record numbers of refugees arriving in the country, a German paediatrician said in Munich that he wanted to support local authorities by supplying medical treatment to migrants housed at a former army barracks.
    Mathias Wendeborn together with several of his colleagues set up "RefuDocs," an association for the "medical care of refugees, asylum seekers and their children."
    Speaking at his makeshift practice on the grounds of Munich's former Bayernkaserne barracks turned refugee shelter, Wendeborn said the migrants had "the same illnesses people here have: a cold, a cough, a head cold, hoarseness. A lot of them of course have a history of serious wounds, they have worn and sore feet, infected wounds, badly treated broken bones, all sorts of things."
    RefuDocs, a word creation derived from refugee and doctors, is working with a pool of 70 doctors: general practitioners, gynaecologists, psychiatrists and paediatricians.
    Their work is financed by the city of Munich and Wendeborn stressed that he and his colleagues carry out treatments on days off, when their practice would otherwise be closed.
    "What I really would like to set up is a mobile dentist's practice, a 'RefuDocs' dental van where the most urgent treatments can take place, where different dentists work, just like here," said Wendeborn.
    In September alone, 164,000 new asylum seekers were registered in Germany, according to figures released on Wednesday by the interior ministry, bringing the total this year so far to 577,000.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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