South African doctors arrive back from Cuba

CAPE TOWN: The first group of South African students who were sent in 
1997 at state expense to study medicine in Cuba arrived home late last 
month to undertake their community service in Mpumalanga province.

The province's Health Department was the first to send a group of 10 
medical students to Cuba for training so they could fill vacant posts in 
Mpumalanga hospitals.

Since 1998 other provinces have followed Mpumalanga's lead, sending 
students from disadvantaged rural areas, who did not pass the selection 
process for SA universities, to Havana.

The students must spend the first nine months learning Spanish, the 
language of instruction. One of the Mpumalanga students could not fulfil 
the language requirements and gave up.

By 1998 there were 52 SA students in Havana. Two others from the Mpumalanga 
group were later sent home because they were HIV positive — Cubans are 
tested for HIV at least four times a year.

"The students have to declare their willingness to return to SA and work in 
rural areas. Many of them, because of deficiencies in the basic education 
system, could not fulfil [local] universities' entrance requirements," said 
Joanne Collinge, the spokeswoman for the national Health Department.

Cuba's medical curriculum is targeted at primary health care, ideal for 
developing countries.

Mpumalanga Health Department spokesman Dumisani Mlangeni said the greatest 
health challenges in Mpumalanga are in the far-flung rural areas. "We 
really need more doctors in those areas because most doctors want to work 
in the cities. We also lose a lot of doctors overseas."

The students must now do two years' community service before they are 
registered as doctors in South Africa.