HAVANA, October 9 (Oswaldo de Céspedes, CPI) – President Fidel
Castro’s recent offer to send 3,000 doctors to Africa provoked rumblings
among citizens who decry the shortcomings of the Cuban health system.
They not only face a shortage of medicines and extreme difficulties in
performing diagnostic studies, but often find there are no doctors available in
medical facilities in the city, evidently, they say, because doctors who are
sent abroad are not substituted in their workplaces.
Specialists in family medicine were perplexed by the offer, because they say
the workload of those who go abroad falls on the soulders of those who remain
behind, who must extend their working hours and their periods on-call.
The incentive for doctors and technicians to go abroad is a 200
dollar-a-month stipend, or about ten times their normal income in Cuba.
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