Approximately 180 Jamaicans have been awarded scholarships to pursue studies in medicine at Cuban universities over the last eight years, checks with the Ministry of Finance revealed.

This figure does not include persons who have paid their way to pursue medicine in Cuba. This programme was discontinued in 2004.

In 2008, 17 students enlisted in the Cuba/Jamaica scholarship programme.

Dr Rosemarie Wright-Pascoe, president of the Medical Association of Jamaica (MAJ), said the Cuba-Jamaica medical scholarship programme has provided opportunities to Jamaican students, covering tuition, meals, accommodation, and a stipend of US$300 monthly.

Postgraduate training

"All those individuals with limited funds and from lower socio-economic backgrounds can now have the ability to do this programme to become doctors, and many are not interested in migrating, some go on to do postgraduate training," she said.

She also said the Cuba programme has a strong public-health focus.

Spanish language classes are held in the first 12 months of the seven-year programme. The next five years involve focus on medicine; with the final year in internship.

During the final year, students return to Jamaica where they rotate studies in specialist areas such as paediatrics, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology. Thereafter, they are eligible to sit the medical exam in Jamaica to be qualified as registered practitioners.

Students are bonded, for five years, to work in the Jamaican public-health sector. Many opt to go into private practice afterwards.

Assimilation problems

However, the Cuba programme does have its demerits. Aside from the discomfort of distance from family, the foreign-language component causes translation and assimilation problems when doctors return to Jamaica, Wright-Pascoe told The Gleaner. The language barrier makes the process of sitting local medical exams difficult for Cuba-trained workers, she said.

There is no direct collaboration between the Cuban authorities and the MAJ, but every year the MAJ goes to Cuba on a medical trip, visits schools and hears students' concerns.

"Cubans are not prejudiced and welcome visitors from all over the world, and the medical programme is like a mini-United Nations for these Jamaican students," Wright-Pascoe said.

Testimony

Former trainee under the Jamaica-Cuban medical scholarship programme, which started in the early 1980s, Dr Neville Graham, consultant surgeon in general and vascular laparoscopy at Westchester Medical Centre, said his time in the neighbouring island was fulfilling and rewarding.

At age 21, he left the Natural Sciences Faculty (now the Pure and Applied Sciences Faculty) at the University of the West Indies and joined the Cuba-Jamaica scho-larship programme.

Graham, who later went on a fellowship to the Royal College of Surgeons of England, is now a second-year adjunct professor at University of Technology, Jamaica.

Cuban food-preparation styles were bland, Graham said, so he carried his own spices, as well as fish and eggs, until he got accustomed to the new diet.

In his day, there were four to eight students accommodated per dorm, Graham, a 24-year medical veteran, said.