Moria Refugee Camp: Reflections from two junior doctors working with Medical Volunteers International

In this podcast, Dr Emma Figures is joined by Dr Flora Burns and Dr Rose Brennan, who discuss their experiences as medical volunteers in Moria Refugee camp last year.

Every day, more refugees are fleeing Afghanistan, Syria, the DRC, Somalia, Iraq and other countries, escaping awful situations and hoping for a better, safer life for themselves and their families in Europe. Sadly, many end up stuck in overcrowded camps, waiting for months, even years, on asylum paperwork. In September 2020, Moria, the largest refugee camp in Europe, on the Greek island of Lesvos burnt to the ground. While some refugees were re-located to mainland Europe, many still remain in dire and desperate situations in what has been called “Moria 2.0”, living in tents on Lesvos, with limited healthcare, sanitation, education, opportunities or hope.

Flora and Rose share some of their insights, reflections, challenges, rewards and advice, from their perspective as junior doctors working in this context. They discuss working with translators, common clinical presentations, difficult cases and coping strategies. If you would like to read more about their experiences, contact operations@extreme-medicine.com for a copy of their article.

Flora graduated from Peninsula Medical School in 2017 and completed her foundation years in Scotland which included a rural rotation in Fort William. Since then, she has worked as an ED clinical fellow with 80% in ED and 20% of time for Expedition medicine in Bristol. Her interest in humanitarian work began when she undertook a medical elective in Malawi. Like many other junior doctors, Flora wanted a break in the traditional career ladder after my foundation years and was keen to broaden her horizons in expedition medicine and humanitarian work.

Rose studied medicine and an intercalated year of pre-hospital medicine at Barts and The London Graduating in 2017. Following this she took foundation years in Brighton and Hastings before moving to Bristol at F3 to work as an ED clinical fellow working 80% in ED and 20% of time for Expedition medicine. During this year she went on an altitude medicine course, ski medicine course and then following the initial wave of Covid headed out to Lesvos to work in Camp Moria. Since then, she has worked as ship medic for Adventure Under Sail going across the Bay of Biscay and has now moved out to New Zealand and is working as a junior registrar in Hawkes Bay ED.

If you would like to contact Flora or Rose, they can be reached at:

Flora > flora.burns@nhs.net

Rose > rose.brennan1@nhs.net