Dear Editor,
I am constrained to write on the abrupt end of our medical program with Cuba.
The recent announcement by the Government of Guyana to abruptly end the long-standing medical “package” with Cuba has got me blindsided. To me, there is cause for worry.
Just over four decades ago, as a state employee, I suffered an almost fatal injury following a violent attack while on duty. The State, lacking the ability to singlehandedly effect or fund my full recovery efforts, arranged and got me air-dashed to Havana, Cuba. Following my interview by a panel of twenty-four doctors, the decision was taken to subject me to external electrical treatment. For three months, I was accommodated at the 24-flat cutting-edge hospital Hermanos Ameijeiras in the heart of La Habana, enjoying the largesse of the Cuban State and people in various forms.
Editor, three months later, I was discharged and returned to Guyana with my hand, which the doctors in Guyana had contemplated amputating, still intact but functioning painlessly. Acute existential challenges will result from the abandonment of the deal with Cuba. I see the poor and less-endowed being the primary victims; the rich will live and the poor will die.
Which country will we now turn to; to train our potential medical professionals, province our citizens with emergency medical services and complement our shortage of medical staff? I am not positively hopeful. Thanks to the government and people of Cuba for embracing our health sector for decades!
Meanwhile, I publicly denounce authoritarian governance in Cuba and anywhere else in the world.