The Italian region of Lombardy, one of the most affected by the coronavirus, has recruited 53 Cuban doctors and nurses, while medical brigades from the island have also started arriving in other countries in the Americas, the Caribbean, and even Africa.<\/p>\n
What makes them so valuable in this type of scenario?<\/p>\n
How does public health work in Cuba and why are there so many doctors?<\/strong><\/p>\n The training of doctors and health personnel for decades has been one of the priorities in Cuba, where both the healthcare<\/a> system and education and university studies are public and free.<\/p>\n The system that has been in force on the island for 60 years does not allow doctors to work in the private sector: they all do it for the State. In the country there are nine doctors for every 1,000 inhabitants, according to official data from 2019.<\/p>\n The \u201carmy in white coats\u201d: going where no one wants to go<\/strong><\/p>\n The \u201cmedical missions,\u201d as they are called in Cuba, consist of sending health professionals to countries that request it from the Cuban government.<\/p>\n These requests come in the event of a crisis, as has happened now with Italy, but they are usually made by nations that need more doctors than they have, that want to reinforce specific medical specialties or that need to cover healthcare in remote or risky areas. to which the local doctors don\u2019t want to go.<\/p>\n Ya en sus puestos los m\u00e9dicos cubanos en Italia<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n