By the end of July, another 70 Cuban doctors will arrive in Calabria, adding to the 274 already in service in the hospitals and healthcare companies of Cosenza, Vibo Valentia, Crotone and Reggio Calabria. The one arriving in recent weeks is the second contingent foreseen by the contract between the Region and the company Trader of Cuban medical services, owned by the Cuban government, to bring 497 doctors to Italy. The final batch will arrive in the next few months.
The agreement provides that the doctors will remain until 2025 to help the local health service, which has been in a disastrous situation for two decades now: few doctors and nurses work in Calabrian hospitals and clinics, assistance in the emergency rooms is lacking and in recent years almost all health facilities have been closed or weakened, including clinics. Furthermore, debts of 3 billion euros have been accumulated and in twenty years the number of beds has decreased by 60 percent. Every year thousands of people move to other regions for treatment, even for routine operations. The commissionership of the regional health service which began 17 years ago has not served to resolve the problems, especially the most serious: as many judicial investigations have discovered, for decades organized crime has been exploiting contracts and assignments for its business and this is also why it is complicated to change the things.
The arrival of the Cuban doctors was possible thanks to the agreements that the State or the regions can make with other countries to organize health missions in Italy. Cuba has consolidated experience in missions of this kind: the first were carried out in the 1960s, and often involved developing countries. The skill of Cuban doctors – Cuban healthcare is generally known to be of a high standard, with highly trained staff – has been sought in particular during the pandemic: it is estimated that in 2021 the rental of Cuban doctors brought Cuba an amount around 6 billion dollars.
– Read also: All the problems of counseling centers in Calabria
The Cuban doctors on duty in Calabria did not limit themselves to covering the shifts uncovered due to the lack of Italian doctors. They supported surgeons during operations and helped keep the most at-risk departments, such as intensive care, open. Many were also employed in pediatric departments.
Especially before the start of the mission in Italy, the agreement between the Calabria Region and Cuba had been highly criticized. The accusations made against the Cuban government by some non-governmental organizations concerned the methods of payment and the working conditions of the doctors: the fact was contested that of the over 4 thousand euros paid per month by the Calabria region to the investee company Trader of Cuban medical services, Cuban doctors received about 1,200 each. It was also disputed that doctors were forced to participate in missions abroad. The employment of doctors abroad had been described as “forced labor”, “slavery”, and the agreement as “human trafficking”.
Many Cuban doctors serving in Calabria have rejected these accusations, even though the contract is clear: the agreement provides for 40 hours per week and 173 hours per month of work, with an hourly wage of just under 7 euros per hour. Each doctor costs the Region 56,400 euros per year (accommodation and travel expenses excluded), approximately 40 percent less than a doctor hired on a permanent contract. To respond to the criticisms, the Region has included in the contract a declaration of willingness to accept the professional assignment that each doctor must sign: it thus wants to guarantee both the “free will to participate in the program” and the effective knowledge of the economic terms .
The president of Calabria, Roberto Occhiuto, who is also regional health commissioner, said that the project is a great success and that colleagues and patients «are very happy for the work that the Cuban doctors are doing, for the spirit of service and also for the empathy they have in carrying out their tasks.”
Lombardy has also signed agreements to make up for shortages by recruiting healthcare personnel from abroad, in particular nurses arriving from Argentina and Paraguay. Initially the idea was to hire a maximum of 500 nurses, but after the first months of experimentation, Welfare Councilor Guido Bertolaso said that the Region would not set limits. The goal is to sign a new agreement with Paraguay by July to organize the selections during the summer and to have the first contingents of nurses arrive by the end of the year. “At a minimum we should have between 2,500 and 3,000 more nurses in hospitals and facilities in the area, primarily community homes,” said Bertolaso.
According to the most recent data from the Association of Doctors of Foreign Origin in Italy (AMSI), there are 28 thousand foreign doctors working in Italy, of which 24 thousand come from countries that are not part of the European Union. They work mainly in Lazio, Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna.
– Read also: In Calabria, Cuban doctors were very useful
