On the 29th of September 2023, in front of more than 300 interested individuals, authorities and beneficiaries of the Interreg-IPA Cross-Border Cooperation Romania-Serbia Programme gathered in Timisoara to highlight the success of projects that have contributed to the development and improvement of the regional healthcare system in the border area.
During the Interreg Cooperation Day 2023 event, which was organised as a project fair meeting, we aimed to show the people living in the border area the significant medical investments that have been made with the financial support of the European Union through the Interreg-IPA Cross-Border Cooperation Romania-Serbia Programme.
The Interreg Cooperation Day event, organised in Timisoara, joined a European Commission initiative, which designated 2023 as the European Year of Skills to give a new motivation to lifelong learning. We joined this campaign through a medical training module organised with the support of the “AUREL MOGOȘANU” Non-Profit Association for Anaesthesia and Intensive Care and doctors from the Emergency Department Unit of the “Pius Brînzeu” County Emergency Clinical Hospital Timisoara, who shared life-saving techniques, proving one more time that “we can all save lives, but it is essential to know how!”
With the support of the Municipal Clinical Hospital Timisoara, on Interreg Cooperation Day, we brought to Timisoara’s Liberty Square the Mobile Centre for early diagnosis of thyroid cancer. Doctors, led by Dr. Octavian Neagoe, chief surgeon at the Oncological Surgery Department, performed 60 free thyroid ultrasounds for the early detection of thyroid cancer for interested citizens.
Between 2017-2023, the Program funded 9 cross-border medical projects worth over 18 million euros. These funds were used to purchase high-performance medical equipment, construct or rehabilitate medical departments, conduct research to find improved treatments for diseases, especially oncological ones, train doctors in various specialities, and provide free medical examinations. The most important aspect is that former patients from Romania and Serbia with various pathologies are alive today thanks to doctors’ professionalism who used state-of-the-art equipment acquired through cross-border projects.
With the support of Interreg-IPA funds, the “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timisoara and the General Hospital “Sveti Luka” Smederevo developed in the cross-border region a network of specialists in laparoscopic abdominal surgery. The Special Hospital for Psychiatric Diseases “Dr. Slavoljub Bakalović” Vrsac acquired medical equipment and built a centre dedicated to people with neurological disabilities. The County Emergency Hospital Reșița was equipped with state-of-the-art medical equipment. OncoGen – the Centre for Gene and Cell Therapies in Cancer Treatment and the County Emergency Clinical Hospital “Pius Brînzeu” Timisoara developed Romanian-Serbian cross-border projects, allowing them to get modern medical equipment for better treatments of oncological patients.
Hospitals in Pozarevac and Smederevo received non-repayable financial support to rehabilitate medical departments and equip them with new medical equipment. The Municipal Clinical Hospital Timisoara acquired a mobile centre for improved diagnosis and treatment of thyroid cancer among the population, while in Jimbolia, the local public administrations managed to acquire an ambulance that will serve the city and surrounding villages in the Romanian-Serbian border area.
In addition to these developments, a new laser eye therapy centre was established, as well as the development of surgical training infrastructure available to resident doctors, specialists, and medical students through the “Pius Brânzeu” Training and Experimental Surgery Centre.
Interreg Cooperation Day was organised within the Interreg IPA Romania-Serbia Programme, managed by the Ministry of Development, Public Works, and Administration as the Managing Authority, the Ministry of European Integration of the Republic of Serbia as the National Authority and with the support of the Joint Secretariat located within the ROCBC Timisoara and the Antenna of the Joint Secretariat in Zrenjanin.
Images from the event will be posted using the Facebook platform:
https://www.facebook.com/ipacbcrose
Events organised for Interreg Cooperation Day in Europe are presented on the website:
Additional information related to cross-border cooperation between Romania and Serbia can be found by visiting the website www.romania-serbia.net
