The 620 Cuban doctors who have been in Mexico since January 27th receive “a stipend for their needs” from the Cuban government. With those words he said in an impromptu interview, uploaded to YouTube by the newspaper reforma, the Cuban geriatrician Juan Andrés Echemendía, who stressed: “We do not receive a salary here.”
“Our salary is in our country, in Cuba,” insisted this specialist, who affirms that they still do not have “certainty” of how much the stipend will be. According to the legal agreement collected and released in August of last year by Prisoners Defenders, the IMSS Bienestar will give the Comercializadora de Servicios Médicos de Cuba, SA up to $1,283,728 per month (more than $15 million per year).
The distributor, designated by human rights organizations, agreed with Mexico in May of last year to hire 641 specialists. An official who opts for anonymity revealed to 14ymedio that for each specialist the Government of the Island will pocket $2,042 per month and for the services of a general practitioner $1,722.
The Island Government will pocket $2,042 per month for each specialist and $1,722 for the services of a general practitioner.
Echemendía is one of the Cuban doctors who was received last Sunday by the Morelos authorities at the IMSS Bienestar de Temixco María de la Luz Delgado Morales hospital. He arrived in Mexico two days before along with a group of 68 health workers.
The general director of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), Zoé Robledo, assured that 10 specialists in geriatrics and gerontology, 9 dermatology, 7 in allergology, 6 in physical medicine and rehabilitation, 6 in ophthalmology, 4 in general surgery, 3 in in cardiology, 3 in internal medicine and another 20 undefined.
According to Robledo, these toilets will provide service after receiving introductory courses in the states of Colima (11), Guerrero (11), Michoacán (8), Morelos (8), Tlaxcala (8), Oaxaca (5), Veracruz (5) , Baja California Sur (3), Campeche (3), Nayarit (3), Zacatecas (2) and Sonora (1).
The authorities did not offer details on whether the hospitals where the specialists will be are located in remote areas, which is what they are supposed to be contracted for by the Administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The Cuban dermatologist Ramón González Rodríguez, who proclaimed that “they are here voluntarily” and at the request of the Mexican government, announced that an anesthesiologist, a geriatrician and a dermatologist would stay at the Temixco hospital, but did not know the fate of the other 5 health workers.
As usual, the lodging, food and transportation of the specialists will be covered by the state governments.
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