|
Sizwe Samayende. Polokwane. African Eye News Service
(Nelspruit). June 19, 2003. AllAfrica.com
A group of 29 highly skilled Cuban doctors is expected to touch down in
Limpopo on Friday on a mission to rescue the province's short-staffed rural
hospitals.
Provincial health spokesman Phuti Seloba said on Thursday that the doctors'
arrival in South Africa is part of the existing co-operation agreement between
Cuba and South Africa, which started about six years ago.
The programme has also seen batches of promising young South Africans being
sent to study medicine in Cuba each year.
"The Cubans will be spread evenly throughout hospitals in the province
to fill vacant posts," Seloba said.
He said an additional 12 technologists from Cuba would arrive at the end of
the month to help repair hospital equipment and save millions of rands that
would have been spent hiring private companies to do the job.
"We're also in discussions with various universities to train
technologists in the field. We want to have technologists at our disposal,"
Seloba said.
The bilateral agreement has not always run smoothly.
Seven Cuban doctors claimed that health and Cuban embassy authorities wanted
to disqualify them from working in the country because they had either gained
permanent residence or married local women.
They want to opt out of the agreement and freely practise medicine in South
Africa.
Their fate will be decided by the Health Professions Council of South Africa
(HPCSA) in August this year.
HPCSA spokesman Phephela Makgoke said the council had registered the doctors
only on condition that they worked under the bilateral agreement, Limpopo has
416 doctors at 43 hospitals and about 400 clinics responsible for a population
of 4,9 million people.
| 
