cuban doctors recalled

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Ken Gargett

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Recalled Cuban doctors to leave 29 million without healthcare

By Anthony Boadle
23 November 2018 — 1:59pm
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Brasilia: The first of thousands of Cuban doctors have begun leaving Brazil after criticism by the country's far-right president-elect Jair Bolsonaro prompted Cuba's government to sever a cooperation agreement, leaving millions of Brazilians without medical care.

 

A Cuban doctor holding Brazilian and Cuban flags takes a selfie before she and other Cuban physicians return home at the airport in Brasilia.

A Cuban doctor holding Brazilian and Cuban flags takes a selfie before she and other Cuban physicians return home at the airport in Brasilia.Credit:AP

Bolsonaro last week said the Cuban doctors were being used as "slave labour" because Havana took 75 per cent of their salaries. He said the program that began in 2013 could only continue if doctors got full pay and were allowed to bring their families from Cuba.

Bolsonaro, an admirer of US President Donald Trump, was elected last month by Brazilians fed up with rising crime and rampant corruption that reached new highs during almost a decade and a half of leftist governments with close ties to Cuba.

 

A Cuban doctor clutching a teddy bear prepares to depart the airport with her colleagues in Brasilia, after they were recalled by the Cuban government.

A Cuban doctor clutching a teddy bear prepares to depart the airport with her colleagues in Brasilia, after they were recalled by the Cuban government.Credit:AP

The doctors practised mostly in poor and remote areas of Brazil where Brazilian doctors do not want to work. The government is now scrambling to replace them and is advertising more than 8300 positions left vacant.

 

Cuban doctors leave Brasilia after Cuba reacted angrily to Brazil's incoming president Jair Bolsonaro's comments.

Cuban doctors leave Brasilia after Cuba reacted angrily to Brazil's incoming president Jair Bolsonaro's comments.Credit:AP

Cuba has a respected health service and generates major export earnings by sending more than 50,000 health workers to more than 60 countries. Even receiving a fraction of their salaries, the money was good for the doctors by Cuban standards.

As they lined up to check in at the airport in Brasilia, many had large smart TVs packaged to take home to communist-run Cuba, where such imported sets are very expensive.

"I will be happy to see my children but sad to leave people without medical care," said Lume Rodriguez, a general practitioner who spent two years in the interior of Bahia state.

 

"Our patients came to hug us goodbye," said Rafael Sosa, 32, from Granma province in eastern Cuba. "I visited many patients here who had never had a doctor in their home."

 

Brazil's president-elect Jair Bolsonaro.

Brazil's president-elect Jair Bolsonaro.Credit:AP

In many Brazilian towns and the outskirts of cities that relied on the Cuban doctors, usually crowded waiting rooms at public health posts were empty this week and notices said appointments had been cancelled until further notice.

Adrielly Rodrigues, a pregnant 22-year-old, was turned away on Wednesday when she went for a pre-natal scan in Santa Maria, a town near the capital Brasilia.

"We are so worried because we don't have the money to pay for a private doctor and she is five months pregnant and still needs to be monitored and have tests," said her mother, Adriana Rodrigues.

 

A national lobby of mayors, the FNP, and the municipal health authorities council Conasems said in a statement that 29 million Brazilians could be left without basic healthcare. They urged the government to make it possible for the Cubans to stay.

Bolsonaro, who takes office on January 1, said last week he would grant asylum to any Cuban who asked for it, escalating tensions with Havana.

The Health Ministry plans next week to waive a requirement that Cubans validate their medical diploma in Brazil so that they can continue working directly contracted by the Brazilian government and not through the Pan-American Health Organisation.

It is not clear how many Cubans will want to break with their government's doctors-for-export program, especially if they have children in Cuba since it would be tantamount to defecting.

Brazil plans to fill the medical vacuum with local hires. In just two days since registration opened, 3648 Brazilians have been selected to fill the empty posts, a ministry spokesman said, but those replacements are mainly in large urban areas.

 

One Cuban who will be staying in Brazil is Richel Collazo, who was so liked in the small town of Chapada in southern Brazil that the mayor asked him to become municipal health secretary.

"My town needs doctors and he has been key to our medical care," Mayor Carlos Catto said by telephone.

Reuters

oliverdst Prominentes

oliverdst

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Bolsonaro (aka Bozo) is not crazy. I wish he was crazy. He is a f****** moron.

He thinks torture is a good thing. Gays are sick people to him.

He wants policemen who kill someone dont go to trail no matter what hapenned during the shooting. A license to kill.

Some years ago he tried to forbid doctor´s families to come to Brazil. Now he comes with this bs talk about "slave labour". Before the Cubans doctors every Brazilian doctor could have attended the Mais Médicos program. Nobody wanted. Brazilian doctors just want to work in the main cities with huge salaries. That´s why the program was created. Now every small city has a good doctor. Patients say good things about cubans, that they are way better, that they care, that they treat them a in human way. Millions of people have no doctor now. He is not in the power yet and have already started killing.

I could go on and on but I think it´s easier just check your daily major newspaper and you will see the news.

 

A little glimpse

https://translate.google.com.br/translate?hl=pt-BR&sl=pt&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fnoticias.uol.com.br%2Fsaude%2Fultimas-noticias%2Festado%2F2018%2F11%2F22%2Ffamilia-faz-via-sacra-por-consulta-medica-em-sorocaba-sp.htm%3Futm_campaign%3Duol%26utm_content%3Dgeral%26utm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dsocial-media

 

With the departure of a Cuban doctor, the family does via-sacra through consultation in Sorocaba.

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Beatriz (left) with her mother, Cleusa, and her two small children, one of them with special needs

The departure of the Cuban doctor who was attending the Health Center in the Brigadeiro Tobias neighborhood in Sorocaba led.the 26-year-old housewife Beatriz Cristina Medeiros to do a via-sacra with her mother and two small children in search of care in this Wednesday (21).

With the kids - one of them carrying special needs - burning with fever, she went through two units and had to move to another area of the city behind for help. At 6 pm on Wednesday, the family was still waiting to be seen.

According to Beatriz, the family went to the Cuban doctor at the clinic because he knows the problem of Adrian, 9, who has cerebral palsy and is permanently wheelchair-bound. "He was always going to see you at home, so we got used to his service."

"As Adrian's fever was not high, I decided to wait until today, but then my baby (Maria Alice, 1 year and 2 months) also had (fever)," says the housewife. In the morning, with her mother's help, Beatriz went to the station, but the unit was closed.

"They said it would open in the afternoon and we returned after lunch, and that's when we learned that the Cuban doctor would not take it anymore. According to her, a nurse examined the children and recommended that they go to the East Pre-Hospital Unit, nine kilometers away.

For being away, she had to wait for her husband to leave work to get them there. "We are so far (at 6 pm Wednesday) without knowing what children have," he said. "A lot of people in the neighborhood will miss him (Cuban doctor)."

Network Affected

The city of Sorocaba informed that the 18 Cuban doctors who are leaving the basic network will be replaced. According to the technical manager of the Primary Care Program of the municipality, Frederico Gizzi de Campos, the health network is expected to remain up to two weeks without full care. The information is from the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.

 

Ken Gargett Pelo De Oro

Ken Gargett

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7 hours ago, oliverdst said:

Bolsonaro (aka Bozo) is not crazy. I wish he was crazy. He is a f****** moron.

He thinks torture is a good thing. Gays are sick people to him.

He wants policemen who kill someone dont go to trail no matter what hapenned during the shooting. A license to kill.

Some years ago he tried to forbid doctor´s families to come to Brazil. Now he comes with this bs talk about "slave labour". Before the Cubans doctors every Brazilian doctor could have attended the Mais Médicos program. Nobody wanted. Brazilian doctors just want to work in the main cities with huge salaries. That´s why the program was created. Now every small city has a good doctor. Patients say good things about cubans, that they are way better, that they care, that they treat them a in human way. Millions of people have no doctor now. He is not in the power yet and have already started killing.

I could go on and on but I think it´s easier just check your daily major newspaper and you will see the news.

 

A little glimpse

oliver, i had been watching stuff on the elections in the lead-up to them. this guy sounded terrifying, but perhaps not that different to a number of wanabee leaders in a number of countries. 

i did see that he was keen to replace the amazon with soy bean plantations, or something similar. 

anyone who thinks the world is not terminal is about a million more times optimistic than i am. 

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