Let’s embrace Cuban doctors, we need them

Cuban President Raul Castro (right) receives Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta at the Revolution Palace in Havana on March 15, 2018. Cuba has a lower infant mortality rate than Kenya. PHOTO | ERNESTO MATRACUSA | AFP

What you need to know:

  • Cuba is sending us technical experts to help operate and build capacity of our own technicians to do the same.
  • Specialists are needed now to deal with cancers, complicated illnesses and an increased need for surgery.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has just come back from an official visit to Cuba in which among other things, he managed to secure a detailed medical cooperation agreement with Cuba.

The most reported part of this agreement is “importation of 100 doctors from Cuba”.

The country is livid. From the doctors' union (KMPDU) to social commentators, everybody is complaining.

The KMPDU officials are quoted as saying the country has more than 1,000 doctors who have remained unemployed for over a year.

Whereas this is unacceptable in a country that has a chronic deficit of human resources for health, it cannot be used to refuse an assistance of 100 doctors from Cuba.

SPECIALISTS
To begin with, Cuba is not sending us post-internship doctors — they are sending us highly specialised doctors who will go a long way in helping build the capacity of our own doctors, especially in rural counties where oftentimes these specialists are not found.

The list includes sports scientists — an area we are acutely lacking in for a sports powerhouse.

Even more importantly, the deal includes sending fifty Kenyan doctors to Cuba for specialised training under the agreement, for free.

Secondly, following the initiation of the Managed Equipment Services, there have been reports of inadequate technical staff to operate most of the machines.

Cuba is sending us technical experts to help operate and build capacity of our own technicians to do the same.

ADVANTAGES

In addition, there will be the participation in research and advanced trials of medicines in areas that Kenya is vulnerable, for example using therapeutic anti-HIV and anti-prostate cancer vaccines, vaccines to control influenza and meningitis and control of diabetic foot ulcer amputation.

It will also cover vector control in the fight against malaria, something Cuba has been able to eliminate for years.

To understand why we could learn a lot from Cuba, here are some facts in perspective.

Cuba’s Latin American School of Medicine was described by the immediate former WHO Director General Margaret Chan as “the world’s most advanced medical school” – and by far one of the largest medical schools in the world where both tuition and accommodation are free.

INFANT MORTALITY

Cuba has an infant mortality rate of 4.2 per 1,000 live births while Kenya’s stands at 36 per 1,000 live births.

Cuba was certified Malaria-free by the WHO in 1973 while in Kenya malaria is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, with more than 70 per cent of the population at risk of infection (KDHS 2014) and up to 16,000 deaths recorded in 2016 (Economic Survey, 2017).

Cuba is the first country to eliminate HIV transmission from mother to child, has immunised 98 per cent of the popular against 13 illnesses, provides antenatal care to 95 per cent of pregnant mothers by the end of the first trimester and has developed a lung cancer vaccine.

CAPACITY BUILDING

For a third world country, Cuba is among the very best in terms of health indicators, beating even developed nations like the United States.

If ever there was a partner to borrow and learn from, they could not come better than Cuba.

As we build our capacity to deal with the human resource shortages in the health sector, diseases are unfortunately not waiting for us to develop.

Specialists are needed now to deal with cancers, complicated illnesses and an increased need for surgery.

We need all the help we can get from whoever is offering it, now.

We must embrace the help from Cuba as we develop our own capacity.

But as we do this, we must not let even a single Kenyan doctor stay out of service of their motherland when they are willing and capable.

Dr Makodingo is a devolution and governance consultant. [email protected]