Brazil Seeks to Replace Cuban Doctors with Brazilians in Rural Health Program

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Wall Street Journal

Brazil Seeks to Replace Cuban Doctors with Brazilians in Rural Health Program

Plans to replace up to 4,000 Cuban doctors with Brazilians in next three years

By Rogerio Jelmayer

Sept. 21, 2016 9:18 a.m. ET

SÃO PAULO—The Brazilian government said Wednesday it plans to greatly reduce the number of Cuban doctors working in a health care initiative that has brought thousands of physicians from the Caribbean island to underserved communities across the South American nation.

. . .

The program was started by former President Dilma Rousseff, whose leftist Workers’ Party has historic ties with Cuban leaders. At the time it was created, the initiative generated huge controversy among Brazilian medical associations, which claimed the foreign doctors weren’t well prepared and had poor skills, putting Brazilians’ health at risk.

. . .

The medical program was created to address a dysfunctional health system. In 2010, Brazil had 1.8 doctors to 1,000 people, according to the World Health Organization, and the level was far lower in many rural and poor regions that struggled to attract physicians. In Cuba, by contrast, the ratio that year—the latest for which data are available—was 6.7 per 1,000.

Currently, almost half of Brazilian municipalities have only Mais Médicos doctors, according to health ministry figures, reaching around 63 million people.

Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/brazil-seeks-to-replace-cuban-doctors-with-brazilians-in-rural-health-program-1474463903

[keithbvadu2]

1. It sounds like a political solution to a medical problem.

Are they really going to have that many great doctors available?

[malthaussen]

2. At first, I misread "underserved" as "undeserved,"

... which, if the Brazilian government plans on kicking out 4,000 doctors to make a political point, is probably apt.

-- Mal

[JesterCS]

3. That's alot of doctors - GWB

☺

[Judi Lynn]

4. The doctors came to Brazil to help the people who weren't getting ANY help whatsoever.

Taking their doctors away will mean the same people will be back where they were, getting NO medical help of any kind.

Private Brazilian physicians all stay right in the city where the big bucks are and wouldn't DREAM of going out into the countryside, or the jungles, or wherever, working among the poor. That's something Cuban doctors have done all over the world, they help the poor.

It doesn't take long to grasp what is going on. The perennial fascist overlords want the indigenous Brazilian and African Brazilian people to drop dead, blow away, and they want the land they occupy, many as descendants of people who lived there thousands of years. They want them to disappear, the sooner, the better.

[Mika]

5. Cuban Dr's were intended as a temporary stop-gap measure...

... until Brazil could get more Drs up and running. That takes many years to accomplish. Most of the Dr's and ancillary h-c workers are being trained in Cuba, rendering the complaint of Cuban vs Brazillian Dr's moot.