Gauteng spends R144m on Cuban doctor training

13 July 2016

The Gauteng Health Department is spending R144 million this year for 461 students to study medicine in Cuba, which is about 50% more than it would cost to train them locally as doctors.

According to Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu in a written reply to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature, the average per capita cost per student works out to R312 476 this year.

The students are in Cuba for six years, which includes one year learning Spanish. Thereafter, they have to spend an additional two years for integration of studies at a South African medical university.

This means that it costs more than R1.8 million to train a doctor in Cuba, and another R500 000 for the extra two years in South Africa, so the total cost would be about R2.3 million for each student.

This compares to about R1.5 million to train a doctor in South Africa in a shorter time.

National Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has driven the Cuba doctor training programme but he falsely claimed in 2013 that that this training only cost R750 000 per student.

Other information in Mahlangu's reply includes the fact that last year, 33 out of 111 students failed their second year of medical study in Cuba, but there were no failures for the students in other years of study.

So far, only 29 South Africans who qualified as doctors in Cuba are employed in Gauteng.

It is mystifying why the Department wants to spend so much money training doctors in Cuba instead of assisting local medical schools to take extra students.

We should train more doctors locally rather than pay an exorbitant amount for overseas study that still requires an extra two years local training.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health, 13 July 2016