Better food and more sports – these are the ingredients of a programme from the Antalya Muratpaşa Municipality in Turkey, to support its citizens for a healthy living during and after the corona pandemic. Although the number of Covid 19 cases has decreased in the summer months in Antalya as in the world, it has been observed that the situation is far from completely normalising. In order to contribute to the citizens to combat the Covid19 Pandemic more effectively in the long term, the administration has sought new comprehensive methods.
Continue reading “Antalya Muratpaşa – Healthy living”Tag: healthcare
Madrid – 352 measures for recovery
Madrid’s City Council approved the ‘Pactos de la Villa’, an agreement listing 352 measures to revive the city after the pandemic. Measures include the reinforcement of social services, a telecare program, and the creation of a municipal social card and many more. Read more here and here (in Spanish)
Contact: Ana Buñuel
Madrid – Back to school
Madrid is reopening all 68 of its nursery schools, while taking into account new health and safety measures, such as ensuring that schools do not exceed 50% capacity at any one time. This means organising children and teachers into smaller groups that should remain stable over time. Read more here
Contact: Ana Buñuel
Nice – 100 masks in the city
An outdoors art exhibition, set up in conjunction with Nice Cote d’Azur, pays tribute to all the mask wearers during the pandemic. Read more here
Contact: Jérôme Sieurin
Berlin – Emergency centre for corona patients
A corona treatment centre with 800 beds has been established at the exhibition centre in Berlin. The idea is to relieve the city‘s hospitals so they can focus on treating critical Covid-19 cases. Patients not in need of intensive care may be transferred to the treatment centre. So far, the centre has not been needed. You can read more here
Contact: Johanna Eisenberg
Besiktas – Doctors online
Beşiktaş Municipality has moved its medical consultation services online. Psychological guidance, nutritionist, family counselling and physiotherapy services which the municipality provides take place through the platform ‘Online live-video medical advice service’ within the office hours.
These services help locals facing physical and psychological issues, either already existing or brought on or exacerbated by confinement during the coronavirus pandemic.
More information (in Turkish) here.
Contact: foreignaffairs@besiktas.bel.tr
Cardiff – Young carers’ support
Cardiff is supporting young carers who have to look after a relative with a disability, illness, mental health condition or drug or alcohol problem. Young carers can reach out through WhatsApp group chats, and they can access daily updates and activities to engage with their relatives at home. These include live video chats, workshops and educational videos, as well as information about other support services. Read more here
Contact: Beverley Watson
Glasgow – Digital health care
Glasgow residents are being offered a simpler way to find local health and support services online during the corona lockdown. A collaboration between NHS 24, Macmillan Cancer Support and the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland, the digital service will collate local quality-assured health and care services in one website, called Scotland’s Services Directory.
Continue reading “Glasgow – Digital health care”Zurich – Online appointments and diagnosis
The municipal hospitals of the city of Zurich have patients refraining from going to the hospital and get treatment because they are afraid of getting infected. In order to make some treatments and also appointments possible, the city hospitals set up online diagnostic tools, where patients can contact their doctor if a physical meeting is not needed. You can read other measures in this summary
Contact: Antoine Schnegg
Lamia – At home without pain
In collaboration with the university of Thessaly, the municipality of Lamia is aiming to relieve pressure on hospitals by working directly with other patients who need urgent care, namely those with chronic lung disease and chronic musculoskeletal pain. Read more here
Panagiotis Stasinos (pastasinos@gmail.com)
Gijon – Tips for lockdown
A group of municipal employees with a background in psychology have prepared helpful advice for citizens in areas from gender violence to professional life. Read more here
Contact: Enrique Rodríguez
Madrid – Apartments for seniors
Madrid has opened a complex of apartments to host elderly people without COVID-19 symptoms who have lost their caregivers, which in many cases is also a loved one, or who do not benefit from the help of a caregiver. The new space can welcome up to 75 people, who will benefit from social and psychological support, and the assistance of a doctor and a nursing team. Read more here (in Spanish)
Contact: Ana Buñuel
Budapest – Essential masks and testing
Starting from next week all passengers on Budapest’s public transport, as well as in shops, markets, shopping centres and taxis will be required to wear masks or scarfs. Under current plans as many as 85,000 will be handed out for free.
In addition the Municipality of Budapest will carry out 10,000 coronavirus tests, with the first carried out on staff and residents in social and nursing homes. Read more here and here
Contact: Adrienn Magyar
Lille – Civic reserve
Lille Metropole has initiated a ‘Metropolitan Civic Reserve’ for its employees not involved dealing with the coronavirus. This plan allows metropolitan officials to carry out solidarity actions during their working time to share the burden of caregivers. These actions include food and emergency aid, childcare for caregivers or security personnel, contact with isolated vulnerable people and blood donation, in the strictest compliance with the rules on containment and health safety. To date, more than a hundred metropolitan officials have volunteered to the metropolitan civic reserve. Read more (in French) here.
Milan – Support for new mums
In Milan, mums with newborn babies have access to specific medical and psychological support during confinement. The service consists in a daily assistance, via video calls, delivered by health specialists from the city hospital. Read more here (in Italian)
Contact: Olimpia Vaccarino Aureli
Cardiff – Rugby stadium becomes hospital
With help from Cardiff Council teams the Principality Stadium is being transformed into a temporary hospital with a capacity of 300 intensive care units that can be increased up to 2,000 if necessary. The new facility, the second largest created in the UK to tackle the crisis, will allow to free up capacity at other Cardiff hospital sites. You can read more here and here.
Contact: Beverley Watson
Zagreb – Drive in testing
Zagreb has introduced drive in testing to speed up diagnosis and increase the number of people tested. People do not have to get out of the car in this testing, which increases the safety level of the person being tested and the microbiologist at the department. Appointment for testing will continue to be carried out through a selected family doctor.
Contact: international.relations@zagreb.hr
Zagreb – Hotlines for health
Zagreb has opened a free hotline available to citizens 24 hours a day, where all relevant coronavirus information can be obtained. The telephone numbers of the Andrija Štampar Teaching Institute of Public Health, one of the public health institutions funded by the City of Zagreb, on the danger of coronavirus infection, are also available to the citizens from 8.00-20.00h. A crisis psychological counseling hotline is also available. This is in parallel to a free hotline opened by the Croatian Red Cross for psychosocial support.
Contact: international.relations@zagreb.hr
Cardiff – Universities offering vital equipment
Cardiff University, Cardiff Metropolitan University and the University of South Wales have donated protective equipment and equipment that will help with testing to healthcare services. University researchers are also involved in mapping the spread of the virus and looking at whether different strains are emerging. Results from psychology departments’ research on the impact of the epidemic on people is informing the healthcare response. Read more here
Contact: Ian Catlow
Beşiktaş – Aid to residents
Beşiktaş Municipality has created an online service providing psychological, nutritional and physiotherapy services, as well as family counselling to all residents who have to stay at home. Read more about this service (in Turkish) here.
Support from the municipality is also physical. Beşiktaş, besides its own extensive disinfection procedure, is handing out bags full of necessary hygienic equipment to residents, and is delivering food supplies to residents over 65 years old and to other people in need with the help of local police. The Mayor has joined social welfare workers in preparing the support boxes. Read more about this here.
The municipality is also delivering aid to people with chronic diseases, over 65s, and disabled people who are in social isolation, including hands on medical support and examination, and online medical consultation. Read more (in Turkish) here. To take care of health workers, the city has made student dormitories available to health workers. Read more (in Turkish) here.
Contact: foreignaffairs@besiktas.bel.tr
Portugal – Temporary citizenship rights for migrants and asylum seekers
In order to ensure as many people as possible have access to health care and other public services, the Portuguese government is offering a temporary citizenship to people who have residency applications underway. Read more here and see a compilation of good practices for migrant community outreach here
Nantes – Support for victims of violence
Citad’elles, Nantes’ post-trauma consultation centre for women victims of violence remains open. The centre provides medical, psychological and material assistance to women and children that are victims of violence. Mayor Johanna Rolland has deemed the support from the centre essential during confinement. Read more here
Contact: Nicolas Joffraud
Hamburg – Ready to treat corona patients from France and Italy
Hamburg has offered to admit ten intensive care corona patients from Italy in one of the city’s hospitals. The local health authority confirmed that Hamburg still has the capacity to treat foreign patients. As of Saturday, 28 March, 36 corona patients in Hamburg were in intensive care. In Italy, many hospitals are overburdened and cannot treat all patients. Since Sunday, two corona patients from France are under intensive care in the university hospital of Hamburg. Read more here (in German)
Contact: Thomas Jacob
Stuttgart – Shelter for quarantine patients
In order to further relieve clinics, ensure good medical care and improve the situation of isolated patients, the city of Stuttgart is creating over 300 places for accommodation and care as a precautionary measure. The rented buildings are spread over several city districts and are operated by various emergency services on behalf of the city. They can be used by people whose quarantine has been ordered, but who cannot be quarantined in their own homes. Among the first users are refugees and homeless people.
Continue reading “Stuttgart – Shelter for quarantine patients”Munster – Virtual hospital for corona patients
The University Hospital of Munster, Germany, offers medical advice to intensive care doctors in other hospitals by video. With this support, corona intensive care patients could stay longer in smaller hospitals close to their home and would not have to be transferred to university hospitals so quickly, while those beds could be reserved for more severe cases. In the region of Westphalia Lippe alone, more than 200 hospitals could use the telemedicine offer from Munster in cooperation with the University Hospital Aachen. Read more here (in German)
Contact: Anna Chevtchenko
Munich – Corona tests on the go for medical staff
Besides three drive-in coronavirus testing stations, the city of Munich is setting up a walk-through testing for medical staff. Doctors, nurses, assistants at hospitals and other health care professionals can easily and quickly reach the station and get the test result within 24 hours via sms. Read more here (in German)
Contact: Larissa Kiesel
Zaragoza – Connecting businesses and citizens
Zaragoza has launched a platform for corporate solidarity contributions. The site connects the commitment and resources of private companies with the needs of Zaragoza society in order to face this emergency situation. Five work areas have been set up in which the different companies can lend their help: health, education, entertainment, technology and food. Read more (in Spanish) here.
Contact: Lorena Calvo
Dusseldorf – Drive-through testing, diagnostic centre and hotline
In order to keep up with testing its citizens for coronavirus infections, Dusseldorf has established a drive through testing centre. People can now make appointments via the coronavirus information line and get tested without getting out of their cars. They will be given the results 24 to 36 hours later. This service is provided only for people working in healthcare, in public safety jobs and critical infrastructure. The drive-throughs are supposed to run over 100 tests per day and should relieve Düsseldorf’s diagnostic centre and hospitals. Read more about the drive-through (in German) here.
The diagnostic centre, running alongside the drive-through, was opened in order to relieve the burden of general medical practitioners in the local health system. Appointments for a test are only issued via the coronavirus information line. Read more (in German) here.
The helpline has run 24/7 since the end of February to provide general information on the virus and also coordinate appointments for the testing of possibly infected citizens in the diagnostic centre. Read more (in German) here.
Contact: Stefanie Nietfeld
Madrid – More health staff for home monitoring
The healthcare personnel of Madrid Salud, an autonomous body dependent on the Madrid City Council, will be incorporated into the primary care services to carry out home surveillance of people with symptoms of coronavirus. Thus, around thirty health professionals, including doctors, nurses and psychologists, will provide their services from this week. Read more here (in Spanish)
Contact: Ana Buñuel
Lille Metropole – Support to hospitals
Lille Metropole is supporting local hospitals by supplying barriers and security guards, new signage and food from the reserves of the municipal office’s restaurant. The metropole is also working to promote the production of protective masks for caregivers by local textile companies and independent dressmakers. Read more (in French) here.
Contact: Christophe Bolot
Antwerp – City employees volunteer en mass to support triage
In Antwerp a triage system was established to isolate and provide appropriate care to patients infected with the coronavirus. A patient must first contact the GP by telephone. With mild or severe symptoms, the patient is directed to one of five triage points on the city’s territory, where a deeper triage occurs. The triage posts are an initiative of GP associations. However, they do not have enough people to perform all tasks there.
After a survey among its own staff, the city of Antwerp delegated volunteers to support the five triage stations that have been set up in the city’s territory. Hundreds volunteered. In less than two days, 10 coordinators and more than 100 call center, reception and security staff were found, selected, briefed, provided with work equipment and deployed in the triage stations.
Contact: Kris Van Berendoncks
Paris – Support for health staff
Paris is offering services to ensure that those on the front line fighting the spread coronavirus are able to go to work. The city is running child care facilities for the children of health professionals. It is also collaborating with the national level, offering the state skilled personnel, in particular doctors and midwives, who work for the local government.
Paris is also making making space available for doctors whose waiting rooms are too small for appropriate distance to be kept between patients. Read about these and more measures (in French) here. Regular transmissions on Parisian activity around Covid 19 are posted here.
Contact: Jean-Yves Camus
Barcelona – Strengthening Telecare Assistance
The municipality of Barcelona has reorganised its telephone operated home care service to contact 3,000 users every day to inform them about and answer queries on Covid-19. Read more here
Contact: Marta Puchal
Mannheim/Baden-Württemberg – Patient treatment across the border
Last weekend, patients from French hospitals in the Région Grand Est who needed urgent artificial respiration, were transferred to hospitals in Mannheim, Heidelberg, Freiburg and Ulm. The German hospitals provide in station hospital service and most importantly, ventilators. Read more here
Contact: Nelly Saemann
Berlin – Rapid response strategy includes new hospital
The Berlin city government will build a new hospital for up to 1,000 coronavirus patients. Other measures being taken include reducing metro services, and updating its crisis response strategy.
The updated strategy aims to support people and businesses through offering measures such as tax relief for companies struggling with liquidity, or covering loss of earnings for cancelled events or when staff are quarantined.
Read more here
Contact: Johanna Eisenberg