Ensure that Cuban doctors equal to task

THE EDITOR: To the Cuban doctors who will soon be in our country, the General Practition-ers Association of Trinidad and Tobago (GPATT) extends a warn and cordial welcome! There has been a chronic shortage of doctors at the primary health care level and we hope your presence will alleviate this situation.

There are more than 40 Medical Schools in Cuba. However, only 13 are registered in the listing of Medical Schools of the World Health Organisation (WHO). The Medical Board Act categorically states that all doctors wishing to practise medicine in Trinidad and Tobago must have been taught at their Medical School in the language of English — hence acceptance of Nigerian and Indian graduates. GPATT has no problem that our Cuban colleagues were taught Medicine in Spanish, but GPATT would like the Ministry of Health to make sure that these doctors are fluent in English. We have been told that they have studied English up to the equivalent of CXC level, some several years ago. For the sake of our population, we hope they can communicate on the same wavelength.

Since this will be our society’s large exposure to Cuban doctors, GPATT would like them to have had at least five years of experience in the practice of medicine, so we are sure that they must be in possession of some degree of experience and skills to work in a Health Office setting, be it alone in Toco, Tabaquite or Mayaro. GPATT trusts that for at least the first year, Cuban doctors will be supervised by local doctors. This of course means that our local doctors may become medico-legally responsible for the actions of Cuban doctors. We trust that our Cuban comrades will also be covered medico-legally in case of litigation. The General Practitioners Association of Trinidad and Tobago would like to express its full confidence in the Medical Board of Trinidad and Tobago. We trust that our colleagues in the executive arm of this Council will honour their mandate to preserve the integrity of the medical profession and to protect the general public by assuring quality health care is being offered to them. We hope that they will not succumb to political and other pressures and that they will ensure that the laws of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, with respect to the Medical Board Act, are not contravened.

DR NEIL SINGH
President GPATT