Strengthening health system resilience: Romanian lessons from the Ukrainian refugee influx
Overview
As millions fled the war in Ukraine, Europe’s health systems faced a test of resilience. This publication summarizes how the Republic of Moldova coped. It is part of a novel EU-funded initiative led by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration, under the EU4Health project. Five countries – Czechia, Latvia, Poland, Romania and the Republic of Moldova – have all put their experiences to the test, reviewing how their systems managed so that they could learn lessons from the shock and find levers to improve the resilience of their health systems for the future.
In Romania, a high-impact workshop held in Bucharest on 17 June 2025 brought together top-level experts to assess how the system absorbed, adapted and transformed to meet the needs of Ukrainian refugees. This report captures the insights, challenges, and innovations discussed, offering a snapshot of health system resilience in action.
