Let Cubans give medical help

By Robert L. M. Clarke
| Mon, January 28, 2013 - 12:01 AM

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In THE NATION newspaper, Wednesday January 16, 2013 on page 20A there is a news item attributed to the Attorney General and Minister of Home Affairs, Adriel Brathwaite, in which he said that registered nurses and medical doctors were wanted to work at a penal institute and that no suitable applications for those posts were received.

Due to that fact, he stated “those two notifications could soon be seen in local newspapers because Barbados health care professionals seemed uninterested in working at the lone correctional facility Her Majesty’s Prison at Dodds”.

I would like to draw to the Government’s attention and the people of Barbados that more than 26 doctors were trained in medicine at Cuban universities at the expense of the Cuban Government which has asked for nothing in return. They understand that there are certain inalienable rights that human beings have. The general health of the population is one of those rights.

At present, there are four Cuban-trained medical doctors working in Barbados.

The People’s Empowerment Party (PEP) strongly suggest that Mr Adriel Brathwaite, the Attorney General and Minister of Home Affairs, in concert with Mr Donville Inniss, Minister of Health, urgently contact the Cuban Government through Her Excellency Lissette Pérez Pérez at the Cuban Embassy in Edgehill Heights, St Michael to request urgent Cuban assistance.

I am sure that this request will be handled speedily by the Cuban Embassy and Government. This will be of great assistance to Barbados.

Further, in spite of the statement made by the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners in relation to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and its position on doctors, we can again request from the Cuban Government that they assist us with doctors to help at the QEH and all other medical facilities that urgently need doctors and nurses.

It might be of interest to the Government and the Barbadian public that nearly all of the doctors practicing in the Commonwealth of Dominica are Cuban trained; a large number of Cuban doctors are working in Trinidad and Tobago with over 500 are working in Haiti.

The genuineness of the Cuban Government cannot be questioned and I would wish that the Barbados Government make this request and treat it as one of utmost urgency.