Cuba trained doctors to add in a long list of students caught up in placement fiasco

The 1 292 medical students who graduated in Cuba this week join the long list of other student doctors caught up in
government’s community service placement fiasco.

This also comes against the backdrop of concerns about the costs and benefits of the Nelson Mandela Fidel Castro Health Collaboration Programme, as well as growing discontent with the level of training and competency.

The programme was instituted in 1996 and expanded in 2011 to meet the needs of rural and underserved urban areas, resulting in about 800 students per year training in Cuba.

This is according to a study – Cuban Medical Training For SA Students – which also notes that in 2018, about 700 Cuban-trained doctors returned to SA amid concerns about how their training would be supervised and the subsequent costs of absorbing them into the health system.

ALSO READ: Millions for Cuban doctors in SA paid out of HIV/Aids grant – DA

The study released in June 2019 also noted that the logic of training South Africans in another country, in a different language and culture, faced criticism.

The study states that medical schools in SA have provided one to three years of extended medical training for the doctors.

It is estimated that the 2019 annual cost of doctor training in Cuba was R331 000 per person – more than double what it would cost at a local medical school.

Independent public health practitioner Dr Shakira Choonara said she, like other experts, was concerned the costs of the programme outweighed benefits.

“It’s too expensive, absorption of the graduates remains a challenge. Other than bilateral relations this programme is not cost effective for the health system. Government continues to ignore this,” she said.

Public health expert Dr Atiya Mosam said although she has had no experience with Cuban-trained doctors other than from her reading, the competency concerns need exploration.

“I will say that given the concerns raised, there needs to be a formal process of assessment by the [Health Professions Council of SA] for these students, similar to the board exam taken by foreign doctors wishing to work in SA,” she said.

ALSO READ: Cuban doctors ‘cost R440m’, while local ones sit without work

Another Joburg doctor at a state hospital said that the training amounted to introductory or pre-med course; while a Joburg doctor said they recently ordered a Cuban-trained doctor out during surgery as they almost killed a
patient.

But Dr Glenda Davison, associate professor and head of the biomedical sciences department at Cape Peninsula University of Technology, believes the Cuban approach to healthcare could be beneficial, particularly in rural
communities and for people who do not have access to hospitals.

She does not believe the doctors are incompetent but that they have developed different skills which are more community-based, saying this was perhaps an area that SA medical schools could learn from.

The health department has yet to respond to these claims, as well as the programme cost and its impact on access to health, particularly in rural areas.

– siphom@citizen.co.za