Medical students home from Cuba
LINATHI Nqai from Ezibeleni is one of more than 900 South African medical students who have studied in Cuba.
A total of 13 students from the Chris Hani district attended the University of La Havana.
Nqai, who plans to be a gynaecologist, left in 2012.
He is completing an 18-month internship at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, in Pretoria.
He said he had to make many adjustments, including the unusual academic year which starts in September and ends in June.
Nqai described Cubans as friendly people and he has also learnt to speak Spanish.
“When we arrived, we were taught the language for three months and in the next three months we began pre-medicine classes in Spanish. This was challenging because the lecturers did not speak English. As a result, we had to help each other construct sentences based on the words each of us knew in order to get the message across.”
Only 720 of the original 900 completed the courses.
“Some students lasted for two days, some a week. Some returned to SA because they failed. It was a case of survival of the fittest in a foreign land,” Nqai said.
He said the end of the programme recently announced by the health department, was disappointing.
“The programme gave a chance to students who were unable to get into South African universities due to limited space.”
He said Cuba’s primary health care system was effective.
“Most of the doctors are patriots – they are not rich like SA doctors who drive fancy cars and make a lot of money. Being a doctor in Cuba is not a luxury but a necessity.”
He said more doctors were available and thus an illness was often detected in its early stages.
“That is why it becomes difficult for Cuban doctors to adjust to the South African health system because it is a fast-curing system and they are used to interacting with their patients. There, doctors go as far as making house calls to help their patients.”