Medinetz Dresden was founded in 2005. Today we are about ten active members – students of medicine as well from other subjects, doctors, retirees, an attorney as well as a physicist.
We work with more than 80 doctors in their practice and midwives, who have agreed to treat patient referred by us anonymously and without payment. Translators help us to overcome language barriers. We are also in touch with different counseling organisation which work with refugees and migrants.
Organisations like ours exist in many german cities including Berlin, Main, Göttingen, Bochum or Bonn. You can find more information about them here.
About Our Work
We mediate medical care to individuals living in Dresden without legal permission to stay in Germany and without health insurance. Via phone or in our consultation hour we discuss with the patient how medical care can be provided and refer to one of the doctors in our network, who will provide the actual care. When needed, we accompany the patients to the doctors office and try to solve any problems that may arise.
Medinetz does not and never will collect any personal data nor provide information to governmental institutions.
To increase public awareness about the disastrous situation regarding access to medical care of migrants and refugees, we arrange information and fundraising events on a regular basis.
Who do we care for?
We refer individuals without documents to our doctors. In recent times, we have also had an increasing number of requests by asylum seekers or foreign persons without health insurance. In these cases we try to assist through counsel and support especially in communicating with state institutions, to allow access to medical care.
What are our intentions?
Individuals without documents have in Germany only in theory access to health care. Due to reporting obligations towards the Aliens Authority, this access is barred due to a possibly resulting deportation. Therefore, many patients decide not to see a doctor and are therefore accepting high health risks.
We are aware that we can only offer limited medical care as a small organization. Therefore we demand general health care for all undocumented migrants by lifting the obligation to report to the Aliens Authority or other measures to prevent the deportation of individuals claiming their human right for aedequate medical care.
