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The Herald (Harare). AllAfrica.com,
February 17, 2003.
SEVENTY-FOUR Cuban doctors and medical specialists arrived in the country
yesterday on a two-year programme which will see them deployed in provincial and
district hospitals.
The medical practitioners, who included 50 general medical officers and
specialists in urology, dentistry, gynaecology and paediatrics are expected to
ease the critical shortages of doctors and specialists in the country.
The Cuban Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Buenaventura Reyers-Acosta, said the
arrival of the medical personnel follows an agreement signed in Havana last year
between President Mugabe and the Cuban President Fidel Castro.
"President Fidel Castro agreed to increase the number of doctors in
this important field to help the people of Zimbabwe.
"Sixty doctors are currently back home on holiday but they will be
joining this group in a few months' time," said Mr Reyes-Acosta.
The head of Cuba's Medical Brigade, Dr George Bustillo, who has been working
in the country for the last two years, said the doctors would be deployed in
various hospitals where their services are needed.
"Our doctors can work anywhere. Their obligation is the welfare of the
patients and they are happy to be in Zimbabwe," Dr Bustillo said.
The doctors are expected to undergo a three-month training programme to
grasp the working environment in Zimbabwe and master the basics of local
languages.
In the last four months, more than 30 local doctors have left the country to
work in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Botswana.
Although this is blamed on the harsh economic conditions prevailing in the
country, the Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr David Parirenyatwa, said
the doctors should be grateful for what the Government did for them and plough
back into the community.
Most doctors, according to the Hospital Doctors Association, had just
graduated from the school of medicine where the Government has poured in
millions of dollars in various training programmes.
Doctors in Cuba are not rich and only leave their country under various
government programmes.
"We are in Africa of all the places because we co-operate with our
government and nothing beats that kind of understanding and patriotism,"
one Cuban doctor said yesterday. | 
