Cuba trains doctors to preserve people's health, say experts

HAVANA, Cuba, Nov 22 (ACN) The success of Cuban medicine anywhere in the world is that it not only cures diseases, but also safeguards the health of individuals, families, communities and the environment, as requested by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, said Dr. Jorge Gonzalez Perez, national director of Teaching at the Ministry of Public Health (Minsap).

On a special television program under the name More than doctors, he and PhD Luis Alberto Pichs Garcia, rector of the University of Medical Sciences of Havana (UCMH), he highlighted the quality with which professionals in this field are trained in Cuba, which they considered superior to that of other nations, given the rigor of the curricula.
Gonzalez Perez stressed that in addition to having high scientific and teaching qualifications, many of these men and women have earned the recognition of the Cuban people and others in the world for the humanism and dedication with which they work.
Even in spite of being economically blocked, Cuba has trained more than 45 thousand doctors from 115 nations with the same texts, rigor in the evaluations and with highly qualified teachers than Cuban doctors have.
He pointed out as another strength the insertion of the students from the first years of their studies in polyclinics and hospitals, where they combine theory with practice, and in this respect he said that in these assistance institutions, from the level of primary care to the tertiary, there are scientific research centers.
The national director of Medical Teaching mentioned as an example of the prestige acquired in the world by Cuba, that his specialists preside international scientific societies in various branches of medical knowledge.
An expression of how the rigor with which future health professionals prepare themselves begins from the very moment they seek to enter the career is that, according to Dr. Pichs Garcia, approximately 70 percent of students who take university entrance exams pass them.
High sacrifice and dedication demand the six years of this training, in which from the first year the students begin to link to the scenarios where they will work once graduates, explained the rector, who said that everywhere is guaranteed the quality of teaching.
In the capital alone, where more than 12,600 students are being trined, the teaching scenario includes 54 hospitals, 82 polyclinics and 17 research institutes, and according to the expert, precisely the gradual increase in the number of these centers in the country, their importance, has also influenced the high enrollment in universities of medical sciences.
In the More Than Doctors TV program, Dr. Mayrín Lago, Dean of the Victoria de Girón Faculty of Medical Sciences and several students spoke of the rigor with which they are trained, of how much they learn when in the community, in a doctor's office or polyclinic they have to take care of a patient, of how demanding the professors are.
The testimony of Dr. Lilia González Cárdenas, professor at the National School of Public Health in Havana, was also interesting when she pointed out that since this center holds the degree of Excellence, all the processes linked to the improvement of the students must be of quality: from teaching, research, diplomas, masters and doctorates to the international and national courses offered there.