DA KZN:  Cuban doctors programme a nonsensical and ongoing source of pain and suffering

17 March 2016

The KZN Health Department’s open-ended doctors training programme with Cuba is fraught with problems including a massive spend and is a huge waste of time, both while students are abroad and when they return to South Africa.

The programme does not offer value for money to the province, nor is it effective in providing medical training.

In short, it is a nonsensical and ongoing source of pain and suffering.  This also applies to the parents of children who do not complete their studies and who must now pick up the pieces, both financially and otherwise.

Not only is the Cuban doctors training programme flawed, the DA does not believe it is feasible due to the fact that;

- Students have to spend a year of the programme learning Spanish, orientating themselves with the culture and the language of a foreign country before they can start with the medical curriculum

- When they return to South Africa they must then spend an additional three years being reorientated to the South African Health System before they can graduate and begin practicing as medical practitioners in this country. 

KZN Health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo and his counterparts’ relentless pursuit of the programme in the face of so much negative evidence is astounding.

His recent suggestion to bring Cuban doctors to teach in South African institutions is also absurd if there is currently no recurriculation of our university programmes to include portions of benefit to us from the Cuban paradigm.

And then there is the ANC’s seemingly allergic reaction to the concept of private medical schools - very strange given that it sees fit to spend hundreds of millions of rands in training doctors in Cuba.

Local private medical schools would no doubt contribute significantly, not only to an increase in the number of trained doctors in our country, but also financially for citizens and our economy in general.

In the Western Cape the DA has shown that it is possible to work within the system to save time and money while producing doctors with the necessary skills to hit the ground running. 

This has been done by signing a multi-lateral agreement with the four main universities in the Western Cape, the aim of which is to identify prospective students from rural areas and ensure access to these faculties

During the past three years, the Western Cape Health department has been able to grant 491 maintenance bursaries and 122 new bursaries.  Over 90% of these were awarded to students from previously disadvantaged backgrounds

The department has also developed and initiated a programme with UCT and Stellenbosch to develop strategies to possibly double the intake of MB ChB students at both universities.

Our country and our province need a government that cares.

We do not need a government that only provides lip service and which cares only for those that have close links to the governing elite.

Issued by Dr Imran Keeka, DA KZN spokesperson on Health, 17 March 2016