Local doctor defends Cuban medical training

Antigua Observer Newspaper A local Cuban-trained doctor, who did not wish to go on the record, said the only aspect of the Barbados statement he could agree with is the part about Cuban-trained doctors lacking training in the use of modern drugs. But he dismissed the criticisms as unfounded on every other count.

The first Antiguan to have been trained as a doctor in Cuba nearly 25 years ago, Dr Evans Moulon, was not afraid to express his view that Cuban-trained doctors are the targets of elitist discrimination.

“I tell my other colleagues ‘you don’t worry about them with whatever they say’,” he said. “They try to slice us here too. I don’t worry with them because the people are the judge. People come to you, you tend to them, they get results, they come back. They can say whatever they want about Cuba . . . because the reason is if they didn’t have that anybody could come and set up shop, so it’s a measure of control … look at the amount of doctors Cuba sends here, there and everywhere. They (Barbados) don’t do that. They take a select few people and they graduate them because they want to keep the numbers small as an elitist club.”