193 Building resilience: enhancing healthcare access for displaced populations

Abstract WKS 22: Building resilience: enhancing healthcare access for displaced populations, B309 (FCSH), September 4, 2025, 16:00 - 17:00 Rationale and Purpose This workshop examined key aspects of a coordinated health response to improve access to healthcare for refugees and individuals displaced from Ukraine under the EU Temporary Protection Directive (TPD)1. It highlighted both achievements and challenges encountered across the operationalization of the directive, within the framework of the joint EU4Health action: “Improving access to healthcare for refugees and people displaced from Ukraine benefitting of temporary protection in Member States” managed by the European Commission (EC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and implemented in 10 European countries. 2 Methods/Process of Workshop The session brought together institutional and field-level perspectives from EC, Ministry of Health of Czechia, NGO Equita, WHO and IOM, who shared their expertise, policy perspectives and experiences aimed at improving and promoting access to healthcare for all. Discussions focused on key themes including health workforce capacity, service accessibility and integration, viewed through the lens of resilience across diverse national contexts. Projected Learning Outcomes The lessons learned disseminated were on the EU, WHO, and IOM unprecedented partnership to strengthen health systems in refugee-receiving countries and achieve the best health outcomes for host populations, and refugees and displaced people from Ukraine. At national and local levels, this partnership promoted identifying and tackling the barriers that hinder refugees’ and displaced people’s access to health services; while simultaneously, strengthening the capacity of health systems to meet the needs of displaced communities.