Background

In 2011, we launched the first of our Mobile Clinics. These allow us to reach regions with few services and where access to public healthcare facilities is difficult – agricultural areas, marginalised urban districts, localities hit by natural disasters, refugee reception centres – and provide essential medical care where it is needed most. In 2017, our Mobile Clinics brought medical assistance to people living in deprived neighbourhoods of Milan; provided sexual health information for sex workers in Castel Volturno; helped migrants and refugees landing in Sicily; supported the large community of agricultural workers in Latina; and aided people affected by earthquakes in the centre of the country.

In 2014, two new Mobile Clinics – EMERGENCY’s ‘Politrucks’ – were acquired by converting two ordinary buses into specialised medical clinics. Our medical staff in the Mobile Clinics are accompanied at all times by cultural mediators who help patients understand their rights; help them to gain access to public health services; and, if they face linguistic barriers, accompany them during any examinations or check-ups at public healthcare facilities.

As of June 2020, our Mobile Clinics throughout Italy have seen a total of 74,794 clinical visits.

Medical Assistance for Sex Workers

EMERGENCY operates a Mobile Clinic for the assistance of sex workers in Castel Volturno and the wider Caserta region. The clinic facilitates access to local health services and provides education on sexually transmitted diseases. Our team – consisting of a nurse, a cultural mediator, and a driver – carry out information and prevention activities in an extremely deprived area.

The women visited by our staff are of various nationalities – Albanian, Bulgarian, Italian, Nigerian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Ukrainian – and often do not have access to a general practitioner or regular medical assistance. Most have never had access to the public health service and are not aware of their rights to treatment.