14ymedio, Havana, 14 August 2024 — Honduras will send 170 general practitioners to Cuba to train in one of the 23 specialties offered by Cuban universities. The arrival of these health workers occurs through a scholarship program, similar to the one Cuba also has with other countries such as Mexico. For this first group, the Government of Xiomara Castro will disburse 30,000,000 lempiras (about $1,209,950), the newspaper La Prensa reported on Tuesday.
The Honduran doctors who will travel to Cuba were selected from 1,000 applicants. According to the same media, priority was given to recent graduates. “Young people are the ones who have the most time to serve,” said the Minister of the Secretariat of Social Development, José Cardona. What was stated by the official differs from the argument offered by the Ministry of Health (Sesal), which stated that “health workers were selected for their proximity to the areas where the new health system is being implemented.”
According to Sesal, the awarding of scholarships aims to have specialists who “are integrated into the new hospital network that is being built by the Administration of Honduras, which includes the construction of eight new hospitals.”
“Young people are the ones who have the most time to serve”
The measure takes place in the midst of the controversy over the hiring of 89 doctors in the Central American country. The Medical College of Honduras (CMH) claimed this provision from the Government of Xiomara Castro in November 2023, instead of employing the more than 11,000 Honduran doctors who are unemployed.
The CMH has expressed its dissatisfaction on several occasions. Last April, it denounced the Government for “violating the Constitution” by hiring health workers from Cuba without their having “the necessary accreditation to practice in the country.”
In addition, it noted that the Organic Law is very precise in pointing out that the CMH is the “only authorizing entity in the national territory of the Medical Brigades,” that they must provide their services free of charge and that their stay in the country must not be for more than 90 days.
Cuban specialists, the CMH said, not only do not comply with these requirements, they also violate Honduran labor regulations.
The method of operation is similar to that between Mexico and Cuba. The Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, according to official data up to January 2024, has 428 medical specialty students with scholarships, for which it pays Havana $27,914 (484,041 Mexican pesos) per year.
The Cuban specialists, the CMH said, not only do not comply with these requirements, they also violate Honduran labor regulations
Mexico’s support for the Island has been extended to the purchase of 16,000,000 doses of the Abdala vaccine, a drug that lacks the endorsement of the World Health Organization (WHO). Last February, a flight arrived with 4,530,600 bottles of the medicine for the National Vaccination Campaign against seasonal influenza and COVID-19. Many of these vaccines have been rejected by the population, and some of the doses have expired, despite which they are still being applied.
The agreement between Mexico and Cuba also includes the hiring of 5,000 Cuban specialists. Of them, more than 1,000 doctors have arrived, who have joined the Imss-Bienestar program to be sent to hospitals throughout the country.
For the services of the Cuban doctors, Mexico pledged to pay $1,308,922 per month to Neuronic Mexicana, which depends on Neuronic S.A. Cuba. Since 2018, this company has been the representative of the products and services of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries of the Island, under the presidency of the Cuban Tania Guerra.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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