Cuba Reports on Use of Resources Generated by Medical Cooperation

Fecha de publicación:

6 December 2018

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Cuban doctors who carry out missions abroad with payments for their services voluntarily contribute resources to strengthen health care in Cuba, the Foreign Ministry official Yaira Jimenez said on Wednesday.

In a Youtube channel activated last week by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Minrex), the director of Communication and Image said that those resources are spent in the universal, free and high quality services provided by the country's health system to 11 million Cubans.

The resources are for everyone, for the people, and are the fruit of the solidarity vocation of the collaborators, who prefer to share benefits for the common good of their country, instead of defending a selfish and individualistic vision, she stressed.

Among the concrete examples of the contribution, Jimenez mentioned the aid to finance the repair and restoration of polyclinics and several provincial hospitals.

In late 2017, more than 2,700 clinics and 327 polyclinics had been repaired and received maintenance, she added.

According to the official, the resources from medical collaboration have also been used to purchase supplies and inputs, medicines and equipment for important health programs, including the fight against cancer.

Thirty-one new technologies and advanced techniques were introduced. As part of this process of acquiring new technologies and renewing others, more than 5,000 pieces of medical equipment were imported, with a total value of more than 32.5 million dollars, prioritizing surgical activity, anesthesia, the mother-child programs and the care of seriously-ill patients, among others, the official highlighted.

Likewise, the contributions from collaborators have contributed to defray the material needs of the free training in Cuba of medical students from other much poorer countries, 36,000 of whom have graduated in 55 years.