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