By Raúl Romero on May 23, 2022
It was March 1982 and the 24th year of the Revolution in Cuba was underway. By then, the island already had 2,000 health workers -more than half of them doctors- collaborating in 26 countries. The feat was incredible if we remember that after the triumph of the revolution in 1959 there were barely 3,000 doctors left in the largest of the Antilles. It was then when, with the help of Fidel Castro, they saw that Cuba could become a medical power in the world. They were not motivated by economic interests, but by the desire to help other impoverished countries in the Third World. In a sense, two of the many pillars of Cuban socialism are precisely solidarity and progress in health care, which even some of its bitter rivals have learned to recognize.
The dream of becoming a world medical power led them to create the Carlos J. Finlay Medical Sciences Detachment on March 12, 1982, with the aim of selecting the best students to develop all branches of medicine, improve health services, university and postgraduate teaching, training of specialists, self-improvement, and, of course, international solidarity. “It is precisely our patriotic conscience, our socialist conscience, our communist conscience and our internationalist conscience, what demands the effort we are making,” Fidel said that day, and continued: “But this is not about human vanity, national vanity, for that it would not be worth making any effort, but about the content of that purpose, which would allow our people, firstly, to have one of the best health services in the world; secondly, to offer an extraordinary collaboration to other peoples. Or, if you want, put it in another order: to offer an extraordinary collaboration in the field of health to the world, and at the same time to have one of the best health services in the world for our people”.
After the stages of integration and consolidation of the Single National Health System, a phase of technological development, research and primary care began through comprehensive and community polyclinics, focused on preventive and curative actions, as well as on the promotion of health to the entire population.
According to the Statistical Yearbook of the Ministry of Public Health 2020, Cuba has 497,593 health workers, representing 6.8 percent of the working-age population. 70.3 percent are women. There are between 108 and 92.7 physicians per 10 thousand inhabitants. If we review the World Bank data in this area, Cuba is the country with the most doctors per inhabitant on the planet.
According to the same yearbook, the training of health human resources in Cuba takes place in 13 universities and 29 faculties of medical sciences, four of stomatology, one of nursing, one of health technology, three of technology and nursing, 12 branches of medical sciences, the Latin American School of Medicine and the National School of Public Health. In 2020 alone, international health collaboration was present in 66 countries and 56 Henry Reeve Brigades were created to help in 40 countries.
In sexual health Cuba also has advanced debates and practices. Abortion has been decriminalized, free and assisted since 1965, thanks to the struggle of Cuban women. In May 1988, Cuba performed the first genital adjustment operation on a transsexual. In 2008, with the creation of the National Commission for Integral Attention to Transsexual Persons, led by the National Center for Sexual Education, a plan for integral attention to transsexuals was designed, including genital adjustment surgery free of charge.
Many other things should be highlighted about Cuban medicine, its cancer treatments, the elimination of HIV transmission from mother to child, the response to the pandemic. Looking at all this, it is worth asking ourselves: how much more could the island develop if it did not suffer from the criminal blockade?
Advances in health care in Cuba, as well as in other areas, have been widely recognized. The state and social character of medicine, the preventive, community and internationalist logic, the accessibility and free services, as well as scientific and technological research, make the Cuban health system one of the best in the world. If the hiring of Cuban medical personnel in Mexico becomes a reality, our country will benefit from their experience and knowledge. Let us not fall into false dilemmas and chauvinism; we must demand more jobs and better conditions for local medical personnel and encourage international collaboration.
Source: Red In Defense of Humanity, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English