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Anastasia Balezdrova

For more than 17 years instead of taking their bathing suits out and going on vacation hundreds of medical students put on their white coats and the stethoscopes and go to some of the Greek border Islands, to provide their knowledge for the benefit of the local residents and to the thousands of foreign visitors.

The Greek Scientific Association of Medical Students, which is the main organizer of the initiative was established in 1993 and has seven branches in the country, one in each medical department of Greek universities. The program "Medical landing on the border Islands" started back in 1997.

This summer, 280 students "at berth" on 25 islands from 20 July to late August. The program Coordinator in Thessaloniki, the medical student Nikolaos Liakos told readers GRReporter about the initiative.

"Now we are in the second decade of the application of the program and we can say that this year is special because we have the support of the General Secretariat for Youth, which helped us in this very difficult period for our country. Major contribution to its implementation have also the chairman of the Panhellenic Council of our association Michalis Sideris and the coordinator at a national level Adela Dzordzopulu. We also have the support of thelocal government and the management of the local medical centers where the students - members of the association will work."

The program is voluntary. This year, students who must comply with the requirement to have completed their fourth year of training will visit 25 destinations. Most often these are islands where the medical staff is not sufficient to respond to large tourist flow. "For example, the Symi island, which in recent years has become a highly sought tourist destination as well as the islands Sifnos and Serifos, where a boom in the number of tourists was registered."

Participation is arranged as follows: the student participates in the functions of local health centers by seing patients visiting the surrounding smaller centers in small villages and stay on duty, always under the supervision and with the assistance of the director or someone in charge from the respective medical center. "Let's say that in the center comes an elderly resident of the island to prescribe him drugs for the next month or to undergo a full medical examination. We examine him, talk with him, ask for medical history, assess what tests should be done."

According Nikolaos elderly inhabitants of the islands are very happy about the care they are provided by the students. "I was twice a volunteer in a medical center in Vasiliki on the island of Lefkada. Along with some of the doctors we visited medical centers in some remote villages. Our goal is to help provide medical care where doctors are not sufficient. Sometimes and only at the beginning of our work in the centers a small part of the members of local communities are a little reserved, because this is something unknown to them. After a few days, however they get used to us and change their minds. And this happens because the program often includes assistance at home. Residents of the remote villages of Lefkada were very positive about the fact that the elderly people did not have to leave home early in the morning to go to the medical center because we went to them, examined them, prescribed them medicines and even quite often social workers of the program "Help at Home" brought them the drugs."

The program is particularly popular among medical students who prefer to combine their summer vacation with practical teaching and community service. This year we received about 500 applications for 280 places. "Last year, the applications were two and a half times more than the vacancies. The assignment is usually done by lottery."

In addition to the medical assistance program for the islands, the Association holds each year a Congress of the medical students and junior doctors, in which take part their colleagues from abroad. "Local branches organize events related to "hot" social and medical issues related to drugs, alcohol and infectious diseases.

According to program coordinators the need to have continuous training necessitates its improvement and development, so that in the future, to be a certified professional experience.