The central Italian region’s health authority called for professionals to provide medical assistance “in the areas affected by the conflict as well as in neighbouring countries”.
Among the 500 medics in Lazio who signed up were 172 paediatricians, offering their expertise for free in Italy or by travelling to conflict areas, according to Italia daily La Repubblica.
Lazio follows in the footsteps of the northern regions of Lombardy and Piedmont, which are also recruiting doctors to provide assistance at the borders of Ukraine.
Italian media reported on Friday that Lombardy’s health authority was ready to dispatch the first flight taking doctors and a shipment of medicines to Romania.
Piedmont is also preparing to send healthcare workers from the region to Romania as soon as possible to take child cancer patients for treatment at Turin’s Regina Margherita hospital.
However, the recruitment drives are pending approval from the national government.
Other Italian regions are donating medicines to the humanitarian assistance program set up by the Italian Department for Civil Protection in order to collect medical supplies requested by the Ukrainian government.
The first shipment of aid from Italy arrived at the Ukraine border on Thursday, the department said in a statement.
Italy has also committed to taking in refugees fleeing Ukraine.
Some 900,000 refugees are expected to arrive in Italy from Ukraine in the coming weeks, according to Fabio Prevedello of the European Italy-Ukraine Cultural Association.
“This estimate is based on the fact that there are about 250,000 Ukrainians in Italy, that many relatives will try to join them and that every Ukrainian family has an average of two to three children,” he told Italian news agency ANSA.
As of Monday, Italy had received 17,286 Ukrainian refugees, including 8608 women, 1682 men and 6996 minors, according to the interior ministry.
The arrivals have been settling mainly in Rome, Milan, Bologna and Naples.
A total of around 1 million refugees have fled Ukraine since the conflict began, according to the UN refugee agency.
