Cuba to send doctors to Saudi Arabia

Cuba to send doctors to Saudi Arabia



HAVANA – Cuba will send temporary medical personnel to work in Saudi

Arabia under a deal reached this week with Riyadh, officials in Havana

announced.



The foreign ministry said Monday that Saudi Arabia will become the

latest country to receive doctors from Cuba, which contracts its medical

professionals to work in nations around the world.



"The first group of Cuban doctors will work in the King Saud Medical

City and at the Prince Salman Hospital, two of the most prestigious

Saudi medical institutions," it said in a statement.



Cuba's ambassador Enrique Enriquez signed the agreement on Sunday in

Riyadh, the ministry said.



Officials from both countries are now negotiating "other types of

medical cooperation, which would let the Saudi health system benefit

from the experience... of the public health sector in Cuba," the

statement read.



The government of President Raul Castro hopes to expand the paid program

because it produces an annual income stream of $6 billion a year – an

important source of hard currency for the cash-strapped Caribbean island.



As of May, Cuba had 38,870 medical personnel working abroad, including

15,407 doctors, said Yiliam Jimenez, head of the office that coordinates

foreign medical cooperation. The Cuban doctors work in 66 countries in

Latin America, Asia and Africa.



Forty of the participating nations are poor countries receiving free

medical assistance as part of a program designed by former president

Fidel Castro in 1998. – AFP



Source: "Saudi Gazette - Cuba to send doctors to Saudi Arabia" -

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20130626171270