SA medical students go Cuba crazy
Worry over brawls and breakdowns
FIRST AID: Aspiring doctors from the Eastern Cape celebrate being selected to study medicine in Cuba THE South African government has paid out more than R800 000 in hospital fees for a South African medical student who was hospitalised for psychiatric treatment after repeatedly failing her studies in Cuba.
The student, who is part of the South Africa-Cuba medical student programme, was admitted to a hospital in Paris on January 30 after she apparently suffered an episode on a flight from Cuba to South Africa via France. She had been sent home after failing her first-year exams twice.
The state is paying à1 500 (about R21 000) a day for her treatment, according to a confidential government report from Cuba, dated March 6.
The report, which the Sunday Times has seen, says the student, who cannot be named, was admitted to SainteAnne psychiatric hospital in Paris, where her condition remains “unchanged”.
While the report does not give details on how the student landed up in hospital, it says embassy staff in Paris had been denied access to the student due to her condition, and that a government psychiatrist was due to fly to Paris to “attend to the situation at hand”.
“She was excluded from the programme this academic year and therefore sent back to South Africa,” the report says, adding that before she left Cuba, the student had reportedly vowed she would never return to South Africa.
The latest incident highlights “serious challenges faced by the medical students in Cuba”, the report says.
“In some cases, these challenges are self-inflicted, such as infighting among South African nationals and between South Africans and Cubans following drinking sprees.
“Increasing . . . criminality and unruly behaviour of South African medical students in the country has become a (very grave) concern.
“Stress-related illnesses and pregnancies, which lead these medical students to be academically excluded from the programme, is increasingly going out of hand.”
The report also says “there are three new students in Cuba requiring psychiatric treatment [who] are due to be repatriated back to South Africa and are currently awaiting professional escort in this regard”.
Health Department spokesman Joe Maila said 3 796 students had been awarded medical scholarships as part of a bi-national agreement between South Africa and Cuba to bridge the skills gap in critical areas in the public sector. Of these, 321 had been sent back to South Africa since 1998.
“Some of the reasons which necessitated the withdrawal of students are poor academic performance and ill-discipline.
“The Cuban authorities go an extra mile to assist the struggling students but all depends upon the student. Like any other medical school, academic performance is valued.”
The Sunday Times has been reliably informed that ill-discipline has been the main factor tainting the students in Cuba. The weekly report reveals that two South African students were caught fighting this month. “One student sustained serious injuries and the other was arrested and remains in prison,” the report states.
In 2015 a student from the Free State, Mbuti Twala, was stabbed to death in Cuba during a bar fight.
The report also reveals that a student who was 31 weeks pregnant “had to be returned to South Africa since it would not have been possible to support her at the end”.
Maila said there were currently 2 910 South African students studying in Cuba.
He said 520 students had graduated as doctors since 1998 and were working in public sector facilities, mainly rural hospitals, in South Africa.