24 Cuban specialist doctors landed
9 more expected this week Cuba’s pharmaceutical and healthcare industry second to none
Some 24 Cuban doctors arrived in Gaborone on Saturday September 16th 2023 and were immediately posted to various posts across the country.
Taking off from Havana, Cuba the specialist doctors endured a long flight travelling to Paris, France then Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and finally to Livingstone, Zimbabwe before they landed at Sir Seretse Khama International Airport (SSKIA).
Here they were met and welcomed by Cuban Ambassador, His Excellency Orlando E. Alvarez and Head of the Cuban Medical Team in Botswana, Pablo Betancourt.
The Cuban emissaries were accompanied by two female officers from Botswana’s Ministry of Health and Wellness who could not divulge their names because they are not authorised to speak to the Press.
The group of specialist medical doctors included general surgeons, gynaecologists, intensive care specialists, internal medicine specialists, family physicians, oncologist (1), urologist (1), psychiatrist (1), ophthalmologist and a neurologist.
Ambassador Alvarez told The Midweek Sun that nine more doctors are expected to arrive in Botswana this week. This will bring to 33 the total batch that arrived this month and to 97 the total number of Cuban doctors in Botswana. Upon arrival at SSKIA and after a brief rest and snapping of pictures, the 24 doctors were then ar
ranged into groups and dispatched to various stations among them, Maun, Selebi Phikwe, Palapye, Scottish Livingstone in Molepolole, and Athlone in Lobatse. Betancourt told The Midweek Sun that the nine doctors that are expected to arrive this week will also after the requisite orientation, be posted to new centres including Okavango and Ghanzi. The Spokesperson of the Ministry of Health Dr Christopher Nyanga confirmed that all the 33 specialist doctors will be posted to different hospitals across the country to help Batswana.
He said that since they are all specialists, the Ministry is “hopeful” that their presence will help to alleviate the shortage of medical specialists that the country has been experiencing.
“This will also help reduce patient waiting time given the long periods that patients normally wait before seeing specialists”. But in the end, Dr Nyanga believes there will be more access to
quality health services by “many of our people” across the country in line with “our universal health care coverage aspirations”. The doctors’ programme is regulated by a Memorandum of Agreement entered between the Ministries of Health of Cuba and Botswana, under which the doctors serve in Botswana for two to a maximum of three years.
Despite toiling under the illegal and inhumane financial and economic blockade imposed by the United States of America immediately after Commandant Fidel Castro deposed Fulgencio Batista in 1959, the Cuban Revolution has prevailed against all manner of perils and adversities to build a modern-day pharmaceutical and healthcare industry that is second to none in the world.
This explains why Cuba to this day manages to export doctors and medical professionals to all places around the world.