REGIONAL GOVERNMENTS have been urged to pass laws that would give full recognition to the Cuban medical programme.
The call came from the Cuban Barbadian Friendship Association, Cuban Scholarship Committee (Barbados) and the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration as the controversy around Cuban trained doctors and their competence continues.
David Denny, who is president of the Cuban Barbadian Friendship Association and general secretary of Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration, said in a release on Monday that he was “very happy for the statements of solidarity with our Cuban-trained doctors from Prime Ministers Stephen King of St Lucia and Baldwin Spencer of Antigua and Barbuda.
“Our organisations are also happy to receive solidarity from our Minister of Health [Donville Inniss]”.
However, Professor E. R. “Mickey” Waldron, chairman of the Barbados Medical Accreditation Council, also commented on the issue of the Cuban-trained doctors on Starcom Network yesterday.
He said the Caribbean Association of Medical Councils (CAMC) had been formed to set an exam on behalf of the other medical councils in the region and the council would request any person who they were not entirely satisfied about their qualifications and ability to register in the country . . . to do the CAMC exam.
He said “at the current time I believe all of the medical councils across the Caribbean . . . are asking graduates from Cuba to do the CAMC exam before registration.
“In previous exams before this last lot, many of the persons trained in Cuba, a high percentage of them, had failed the exam – not all of them but a higher percentage than one would like to [see].”
Meanwhile, Denny said his organisations would be holding a meeting with all of the Cuban graduates, students and parents in Barbados on Saturday, July 15, at 11 a.m. to deal with issues in the debate about the Cuban doctors. (JS)
