|
Young doctors return from
Cuba
Craig Bishop.
News24.com, October 12, 2004.
Pietermaritzburg - Rural health care in
South Africa is set to benefit from the
addition of 15 Cuban-trained, final-year
medical students.
The 15, all from KZN, returned to South
Africa after six years at the San Fuego
medical institute in Cuba.
KZN Health MEC Zweli Mkhize said on Monday
these students would spend their final year
practising at hospitals in their hometowns.
Speaking at an official reception for the
students and their families at Grey's Hospital,
he said they would boost rural health care.
Seventy-three medical students are at present
studying in Cuba through the health department's
bursary programme. The department spends
about R82 000 on each student.
There are at present about 33 Cuban-trained
students at South African universities,
according to health department records.
All of them have returned fluent in Spanish,
having conducted all their studies in Spanish
and with high hopes for rural medical practice
in South Africa.
"Language was definitely the hardest
part of it all," said Ubombo student
Jackson Myeni, 30, who went to Cuba with
his sister, Boni, 25.
"But the Cubans are incredibly friendly,
much more than South Africans. They made
us feel at home," he added.
Fellow-student Sibongiseni Ntuli said medical
training was different in Cuba, where there
is little crime.
"No one carries guns there except,
of course, the police and army, so there
are not many gunshot wounds to treat. There
is no racial tension either," he added.
|
