Cuban Medical Cooperation in South Africa Highlighted
Cuba’s medical cooperation with the Republic of South Africa over the last 13 years was acknowledged on Monday by the coordinator of this service in that country, Dr. Tomás Reynoso.
The physician said that 138 Cuban specialists distributed in 47 clinics and hospitals of the state sector in 8 of the nation’s 9 provinces are currently working in South Africa, Prensa Latina news agency reports.
He recalled that medical cooperation in the field of training began in
1997 with the arrival of the first professors at the Faculty of Medicine of the then University of Transkei - today the "Walter Sisulu" University of Science and Technology.
Reynoso emphasized that, in spite of the distance, 90% of the Cuban doctors in South Africa are still studying by way of off-site master’s degree courses designed on the archipelago. He added that 61 physicians graduated from these courses last year.
Besides offering their services and their teaching, learning and social activities, the Cuban doctors have made regular contributions, especially donations, when disasters have occurred on the archipelago, concluded the coordinator of the Cuban medical mission in South Africa.
The first group of Cuban doctors arrived in South Africa on February 20, 1996, after the signing in Havana of the first Bilateral Cooperation Accord in the field of health on November 20, 1995.
After the elimination of the apartheid regime, the mostly black population of that country had, for the first time, the legal right to health treatment, which up to that moment was a privilege of white people.
The physician said that 138 Cuban specialists distributed in 47 clinics and hospitals of the state sector in 8 of the nation’s 9 provinces are currently working in South Africa, Prensa Latina news agency reports.
He recalled that medical cooperation in the field of training began in
1997 with the arrival of the first professors at the Faculty of Medicine of the then University of Transkei - today the "Walter Sisulu" University of Science and Technology.
Reynoso emphasized that, in spite of the distance, 90% of the Cuban doctors in South Africa are still studying by way of off-site master’s degree courses designed on the archipelago. He added that 61 physicians graduated from these courses last year.
Besides offering their services and their teaching, learning and social activities, the Cuban doctors have made regular contributions, especially donations, when disasters have occurred on the archipelago, concluded the coordinator of the Cuban medical mission in South Africa.
The first group of Cuban doctors arrived in South Africa on February 20, 1996, after the signing in Havana of the first Bilateral Cooperation Accord in the field of health on November 20, 1995.
After the elimination of the apartheid regime, the mostly black population of that country had, for the first time, the legal right to health treatment, which up to that moment was a privilege of white people.
Source:
ACN
Date:
27/05/2009