Havana, November 14 (RHC)-- The Cuban Ministry of Public Health issued a statement on Wednesday morning, announcing that due to the unacceptable conditions placed on its doctors and medical personnel in Brazil, the Cuban government has decided to withdraw from the More Doctors Program in that country.
The statement points out that with the newly-elected president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, there have been direct, derogatory and threatening references to the presence of Cuban doctors, declaring that Bolsonaro will modify the terms and conditions of the More Doctors Program.
The program provided for the presence in Brazil of Cuban doctors who worked in poor and remote areas of that country. Cuban participation is done through the Pan American Health Organization and has distinguished itself by occupying places not covered by Brazilian doctors or other nationalities.
Cuba's Ministry of Public Health notes that in these five years of work, nearly 20,000 Cuban medical personnel have treated 113 million 359,000 patients, in more than 3,600 municipalities. More than 700 municipalities in Brazil had a doctor for the first time in history.
"It is not acceptable to question the dignity, professionalism and altruism of Cuban collaborators who, with the support of their families, currently provide services in 67 countries. In 55 years, 600,000 internationalist missions have been carried out in 164 nations, involving more than 400,000 health workers, who in many cases have fulfilled this honorable task on more than one occasion."
The statement issued by Cuba's health ministry goes on to say that "in the overwhelming majority of missions completed, the expenses have been assumed by the Cuban government. Likewise, in Cuba, 35,613 health professionals from 138 countries have been trained for free, as an expression of Cuba's solidarity and internationalist vocation."
"The peoples of Our America and the rest of the world know that they will always be able to count on the humanistic and solidarity vocation of our professionals."
"The Brazilian people, who made the More Doctors Program a social conquest, who entrusted the Cuban medical personnel from the first moment, appreciate its virtues and the respect, sensitivity and professionalism with which it was carried out, and will be able to understand who is responsible for ending it."
