SOURCE: TRINDAD EXPRESS: Send Cuban doctors and nurses back home.- This is the position of former health minister Dr Fuad Khan, who was reacting yesterday to outgoing Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s taking a stance against the United States’ proposed threat to penalise officials of governments using Cuban medics by revoking their visas.
Rowley on Monday said he would protect Trinidad and Tobago’s sovereignty even if it means never returning to the United States.
And Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday said Trinidad and Tobago’s first priority should be utilising local healthcare professionals rather than engaging in a dispute with the United States over its crackdown on Cuban medical labour.
In an interview with the Express, Khan acknowledged that the People’s Partnership government did source Cuban specialists, but only for a short term to fill a gap. He said Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley should act swiftly and send Cuban doctors and nurses back, as he is treading a “dangerous” line by defying US President Donald Trump.
Khan told the Express the Prime Minister should engage in discussions with the Cuban government about ending the contracts of Cuban health workers and sending them back.
“We (the former Kamla Persad-Bissessar government) did it at a time when we did not have many specialists here, and only for a contracted period of three years,” he said.
He explained that specialists such as haematologists, neurosurgeons and vitreoretinal surgeons from Cuba were hired.
“It was not Cuban general doctors as the PNM did,” he said.
Khan stated the Couva Children’s Hospital was intended to be used for specialist training by retired senior specialists, but this was shelved by the Rowley Government.
Since 2013, many T&T specialists have been capable of providing these services, he added. “So we really and truly do not need specialists or general doctors from Cuba at this point in time,” he said.
Khan, who is a Trump supporter, said he agrees with the US President that Trinidad and Tobago is violating US sanctions on Cuba by hiring Cuban healthcare professionals.
He pointed out that the Cuban doctors do not receive any payment directly from the Trinidad and Tobago Government, but instead receive a stipend from the Cuban government.
“We are paying the Cuban government for these doctors. I never looked at it like that until President Trump raised this issue. We are basically sidestepping US sanctions by hiring these doctors,” he said.
Khan explained what happens: “The doctors are sent to Trinidad, and couples are separated. No husband and wife can come together at the same time.
“We have to pay the Cuban Embassy in US dollars to bring these doctors in. They (doctors) don’t get paid; they get a stipend. So really and truly, when you look at it, it’s a political abuse of these people. Trump is not wrong, but I never looked at it in that manner,” he said.
