Exiled Cuban Doctors in the United States: This Program Could Benefit Thousands

A new announcement regarding the situation of Cuban doctors residing in the United States who are not practicing their profession has sparked emotion and generated expectations after being officially announced at a press conference last Wednesday, March 6, about a work initiative.

This is a new project recently announced to the mass media by several nonprofit organizations, where Julio César Alfonso, president of the international entity Solidarity Without Borders (SSF), disclosed the details of the said program.

While these are charitable organizations whose main goal is to help health professionals integrate into the U.S. system, the new collaborative mission is based on providing assistance to those who wish to practice their medical profession.

“The program consists of sending various health professionals to different countries in Latin America, which will serve to keep them in continuous practice of their profession, which would be key to achieving a change in the examination policy within the state of Florida, which is moving within the state legislature,”

announced César Alfonso to the U.S. television media.

Thus, all those Cuban health professionals exiled in the United States who are not yet practicing their occupation and have not revalidated their degrees have the opportunity to be hired on periodic, rotating missions with different time periods by governments in Latin America.

On the other hand, Dr. Alexei López, a specialist in Internal Medicine and Intensive Therapy and representative of the organization Green Cross – which also sponsors and promotes the project – referred to the matter:

“We are going to facilitate direct contact between professionals and the different countries of Latin America so that doctors can practice without intermediaries, making this enduring over time and producing a change for future generations.”

Dr. Alexei López

One of the main demands of this program is that the contracts of the medical missions guarantee the safety and physical integrity of the collaborators.

In this regard, Javier Larrondo, president of Prisoners Defenders, argued that everything revolves around the protection of health professionals, and in the case of medical missions, it ensures that these Latin American countries have the public health coverage they need and at the same time, perform a fair economic retribution to those ready to join the initiative.

During the public presentation of the project, Solidarity Without Borders estimates that currently in the United States, there are around more than 33,000 health professionals who could be potential participants in the proposed program.

Accordingly, it is expected that the initiative will come into effect in the coming months of this year through the formation of medical groups that will offer services for a period of about 21 days in countries such as Haiti, El Salvador, Colombia, and Honduras.

The implementation of this project is representative of the process of strengthening healthcare systems in needy regions, and consequently, former Florida House of Representatives member Daphne Campbell expressed her support for the project given the significant meaning of its implementation for the benefit of the Latino community.

Government contacts to start the collaborative process before the end of the year are already underway, and it is also intended to include – in addition to the previously referred countries – some localities in Argentina, Peru, and the Dominican Republic.