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

The Cuban doctors’ R440 million alleged price tag has raised eyebrows, with government slated for going for foreign medics prematurely when there were local retired and unemployed health professionals, as well as those who had to shut their practices due to the lockdown.

According to a leaked document, which the health department would not confirm nor deny, the chartered flight for the 187 Cuban medics that arrived this week cost the taxpayer R9.9 million.

The Cuban health brigade will also set back the taxpayer R294.5 million in salaries for 12 months, with more than R12 million set to be spent on accommodation and meals for the medics and over R734,000 for registering the doctors with the SA Health Professions Council (HPCSA).

Health professionals are among Cuba’s notable exports through its medical internationalism since the 1959 Cuban Revolution, sending medical personnel abroad to Latin American and African countries.

Cuba is said to have 42,000 workers in international collaborations in 103 different countries, of whom more than 30,000 are health personnel, including 19,000 physicians.

The arrival of the Cuban medics in SA was as a result of a request from 22 countries, including SA, for assistance in the battle against Covid-19.

However, this decision has been slammed as premature, costly and unnecessary by the SA Medical Association (Sama).

Sama chair Dr Angelique Coetzee said the Cuban doctors were unnecessary at this stage as the country was seemingly able to contain the virus.

“We are not against the Cuban doctors but the timing is not right. The department could have looked at retired doctors before going for outside help,” she said.

Coetzee said there were also doctors in the private sector sitting without work as they were forced to close down their practices due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and that there were around 50 community service doctors still to be placed.

“There is a document doing the rounds that place the cost of salaries for the Cuban doctors at about R300 million. That is a lot of money. Let us first look at our own people,” she said.

The country has longtime relations with Cubans, particularly the Cuba-SA doctor training programme, but this has often been mired in controversy.

The Free State government has its own bilateral agreement with Cuba to train the province’s doctors, with the provincial health department having spent R57 million on this programme.

The programme has come under fire, with the Democratic Alliance (DA) claiming the annual cost to train a South African to become a doctor in Cuba is R331,000.

Last year, The Citizen revealed how the Free State province’s Cuban technical advisors programme, which has cost the taxpayer more than R80 million since its inception by then premier Ace Magashule more than four years ago, has apparently collapsed, with only three of the 37 Cuban engineers still in the country.

Mike Waters, DA member of parliament, said they received the information about the cost of the Cuban doctors from a source and accused government of double standards.

“Government says only locals can own spaza shops. So why employ foreign doctors? How much of the money is going directly to the Cuban government? Are we propping [up] the Cuban dictators with foreign exchange?” he asked.

Waters also asked whether the Cuban doctors’ qualifications met SA’s standards and how they will communicate with local patients.

“The HPCSA registration also needs investigating. They are notorious for delays in awarding doctors their licenses,” he said.

In 2014, the Free State government sent 239 students to China as part of the scheme, but there was uproar from opposition parties, who queried the enrolment of the SA students in China as the institutions in question were apparently not accredited.

– siphom@citizen.co.za

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