Cuba's free doctors program

RedRalph

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From BBC

Though the facts are not widely reported around the world, Cuba supplies aid to a number of countries and one of the biggest aid schemes is in Bolivia.

"There is usually a love interest behind it all, if you ask me," says Dr Maria de los Angeles.

A sparky woman from Guines, not far from Havana, she is the director of the Cuban-Venezuelan eye hospital at El Alto, 13,000 feet up (3,962m) in the High Andes. It serves La Paz, the main city of Bolivia, which lies in a canyon 1,000 feet (305m) below us.



We are discussing why a very small number of the 2,000 Cuban medical personnel sent to Bolivia from the island over the past two years have jumped ship and gone home.

Her colleague Dr Mabel, an attractive young eye surgeon from Pinar del Rio, the western-most province of Cuba, agrees.

"There's no pack of parties here," she murmurs contentedly.

At the same time, both women fiercely agree about the worth of what they are doing, attending without charge to the sight of thousands of poor Bolivians, who otherwise would not be able to see.

"Nothing could be more rewarding," says Mabel, who is on her first overseas posting, or "mission" as the Cubans call it.

They add that it is not a bad career deal either.

"We get our salaries paid in Cuba, our food and lodging is paid here, and we get some pocket money," says her colleague.



We walk around her scrupulously clean premises with its well-stocked pharmacy, neat rows of free Chinese-made spectacles, and an occasional Che Guevara poster.

We treat anyone who walks in - and we do it for nothing



Maria de los Angeles reflects on her time and on the years she spent among the indigenous peoples of Guatemala.

"Until I went from Cuba to Guatemala and Bolivia, I didn't know what real poverty was," she says.

The two surgeons are part of an ambitious medical and literacy programme here, and in many other countries around the world. It has brought the Cuban government immense benefits in terms of gratitude from beneficiaries and foreign governments alike.

What Cuba has done in Bolivia alone is staggering.

In a score of general hospitals built mainly with Venezuelan money over the past two years, 2,000 Cuban medical staff including 1,300 qualified doctors have been at work.



They have provided more than nine million consultations.

In particular, Maria de los Angeles, Mabel, and her colleagues have carried out 200,000 operations in ophthalmological units up and down Bolivia.

So popular are they, that the units built on the frontiers with Peru and Argentina have treated more Peruvians and Argentines than Bolivians.

"We treat anyone who walks in, and we do it for nothing," says Maria de los Angeles.


In the other Cuban hospitals in this country, services go from preventative medicine - which has pushed down infant mortality and pushed up life expectancy - to general healthcare and emergency operations.

Then there is the joint Cuban-Venezuelan literacy programme. One hundred and eighteen Cuban and 18 Venezuelan trainers backed with texts and television sets have taught Bolivian teachers the best ways of getting people to read and write.


It is very difficult to attack a country that is giving free health care and education



At the Cuban embassy, the ambassador Rafael Dauza explains the diplomacy behind the scheme.

"We give our services free, bring our own supplies and equipment, and don't take any patients from the Bolivian doctors. Our staff have been accused by those who object to our presence here of being careless and unqualified. But they have never been able to stand their objections up," he says.

"And it is very difficult to attack a country that is giving free health care and education. One provincial governor who had opposed our presence here ended up having his life saved at one of our hospitals," adds Mr Dauza, with no hint of a grin.


Philip Goldberg met the Bolivian government to discuss the charges

All of this has done nothing to calm fears at the US embassy, which looks askance at the Cuban and Venezuelan presence in Bolivia.

A few days ago, the US ambassador Philip Goldberg had to apologise to Bolivia. It was established that an embassy official, Vincent Cooper, had tried to persuade a young US volunteer worker in the Peace Corps to spy on the Cubans and Venezuelans he came across.

"That was a lamentable mistake," says Mr Goldberg.

But Bolivian president Evo Morales declared Mr Cooper persona non grata. He has left for the US and will not be allowed back.

For the Cubans, the recent Cooper affair was all part of a US strategy to tempt Cuban doctors to desert.

US regulations allow Cuban citizens to enter the country with a false passport, or no passport at all.

"We are the only people on earth with that privilege," says Dauza with a wry smile.

Back at the hospital, the two eye surgeons were relaxed about the occasional defaulter.

"Some of them drift back home to Cuba anyway," says Mabel.

We could do with some of this here. Having seen my father suffer a stroke a couple of weeks back and recieved appalling treatment in rich, rich, rich Ireland (our healthcase system is an utter joke), it makes me wonder how this is possible. Why can Cuba provide free decent healthcare to foreign countries when Ireland cant even provide good healthcare to it's citizens?
 
Do you really want a Cuban doctor?


Judging by the standards of Cuban medicine I could do significantly worse... people sometimes lie on trolleys for weeks, literally weeks in Irish hospitals. Why wouldnt I want one?
 
Cuban doctors are very qualified, a lot of them emigrate from Cuba and work here. They are very disciplined and knowledgeable.

Why would they leave Cuba? Cuba is great.

Maybe those "free doctors" could be more beneficial to Cubans in Cuba where health care isn't as peachy as one might think if they listened to Micheal more.
 
Also what kind of diseases do these doctors deal with? Is it something like the chicken pox or that thing where there's a gap between a kids upper lip? Or are they dealing with multiple organ failures in a comatose diabetes patient that had two previous operations and have no idea if he's allergic to any medication or if he has a pacemaker?

'cause if I recall, doctoring is like any other profession and there are varying degree's of doctors that can deal with different severities. Last I recall, treating a stroke is a lot harder than treating cholera.
 
Also what kind of diseases do these doctors deal with? Is it something like the chicken pox or that thing where there's a gap between a kids upper lip? Or are they dealing with multiple organ failures in a comatose diabetes patient that had two previous operations and have no idea if he's allergic to any medication or if he has a pacemaker?

'cause if I recall, doctoring is like any other profession and there are varying degree's of doctors that can deal with different severities. Last I recall, treating a stroke is a lot harder than treating cholera.

Pfffft. Cuban doctors can do it all at the same time blind folded and with one hand tied behind their back.

Cuban doctors are so good Castro used an inferior Spanish doctor so his people wouldn't have one of the best doctors in the world busy with him.
 
If a country is at the point where it's asking for foreign aid, they're probably not looking for Dr. House. They need treatment for communicable diseases and basic chronic illnesses. A Cuban doctor is probably no worse than an American one for those purposes. The Cuban government doesn't do too much right, but they do train lots of doctors. Credit where credit's due and all.

Cleo
 
Why would they leave Cuba? Cuba is great.

Maybe those "free doctors" could be more beneficial to Cubans in Cuba where health care isn't as peachy as one might think if they listened to Micheal more.

Skad, just because you don't like Fidel Castro does not mean Cuba can do no good.
 
Skad, just because you don't like Fidel Castro does not mean Cuba can do no good.

Nonsense. All of Cuba in any way shape or form is evil evil I tells ya!
 
The only reason I'm suspicious is because 30 years ago, another poor country had more doctors per capita than any other country. That country was Albania; does anyone think of Albania now as being a source of low-cost, high-quality medical treatment?
 
Nonsense. All of Cuba in any way shape or form is evil evil I tells ya!

Credit where credit's due, that made me laugh ;)

The only reason I'm suspicious is because 30 years ago, another poor country had more doctors per capita than any other country. That country was Albania; does anyone think of Albania now as being a source of low-cost, high-quality medical treatment?

Good thing Albania is not Cuba, then.
 
Credit where credit's due, that made me laugh ;)

Any doctor saving people is awesome. No matter where they come from or where they save lives.
 
How many intelligence agents do they dispatch with the doctors to make sure they don't defect? Of course, I'm sure the families are held in Cuba as hostages.
 
Cuba is offering free doctors?

Sign me up. I got some major landscaping planned this year and could use the extra help.

How many intelligence agents do they dispatch with the doctors to make sure they don't defect? Of course, I'm sure the families are held in Cuba as hostages.

Come on guys, a couple more posts and you'll have exhausted all the xenophobic cliches :goodjob:
 
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