‘Cuban doctors are not here to replace anyone’ – Health Department

Deputy Director-General for Health Yogan Pillay said the government has no intention of replacing South African health professionals with Cuban doctors.

This comes after 217 Cuban doctors and health professionals touched down on South African soil on Monday 27 April to help curb the spread of COVID-19. 

Although the group was welcomed overall, there were also concerns around why the Cubans were needed if there were qualified and unemployed doctors, nurses and health professionals in South Africa. 

Cuban doctors are not here to replace South African doctors 

In an interview with Cape Talk, Pillay said the Cuban doctors were brought to South Africa to bolster up our response to the pandemic, not to replace local health professionals. 

“This is not the first time we have had Cuban doctors coming to South Africa and they are here to bolster, not to replace anyone. There is no intention of replacing South Africans with any other nationality,” said Pillay.  

“Let me reassure South African health professionals – doctors, nurses, and everyone else, that they are the mainstay of our health system and they will continue to be such,” he said. 

“They are coming to assist us, they bring a different level of expertise,” added Pillay. 

Nursing union concerned that local health professionals are being overlooked 

The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa), on Freedom Day, said it welcomes the arrival of 217 Cuban health experts in the country, however, warned that the government should not overlook nurses here in South Africa that are without jobs, that could also contribute to the fight against COVID-19. 

Denosa President Simon Hlungwani, in an interview on Radio 702, said there are many nurses vacancies in South Africa that shouldn’t necessarily be there during a global pandemic. 

“Of the positions that were advertised in four provinces — Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape — we are aware today that the applications received by the department of health in different provinces [go] to more than 100 000 applicants,” he asked. 

“We know in Limpopo there are close to 1 000 unemployed professional nurses,” he said. 

“If they are to be ignored and unemployed then it would be unpatriotic of the government,” he added. 

The group of Cuban health experts, according to the presidency, consist of the following:

• Experts in the fields of epidemiology, biostatistics, and public health;
• Family physicians to guide interventions through door-to-door testing and to assist local health workers in health promotion and disease surveillance at the community level;
• Healthcare technology engineers to assist in maintaining the inventory, deployment and repair of aged medical equipment; and
• Cuban experts to provide technical assistance working with local experts.