HEALTH and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville officially welcoming 50 Cuban nurses into the public healthcare system, including specialised nurses. Dr Darville said the nurses will help to ensure Bahamian healthcare services remain open and functioning.
By EARYEL BOWLEG
Tribune Staff Reporter
ebowleg@tribunemedia.net
HEALTH and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville officially welcomed 50 Cuban nurses into the public healthcare system.
He said there are some specialised nurses in the group.
“In this particular group, I believe there’s 21 emergency room nurses,” he said. “There’s some for maternal and child health and there’s some for the Department of Public Health.”
He added: “In Cuba, all of these nurses are trained to be in a pandemic. It’s part of their training.”
Some 300 nurses were interviewed, but 50 were accepted for service in The Bahamas.
When addressing the Cuban nurses at a welcome ceremony at SuperClubs Breezes on Friday, Dr Darville thanked them and said he hoped they would provide excellent work. He told the nurses that due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 cases believed to be a result of the Omicron variant, a number of local healthcare workers had been isolated or were in quarantine.
He said the Cuban nurses will help ensure Bahamian healthcare services remain open and functioning.
“You will be integrated into our healthcare system. We will treat you like family,” he told the nurses.
“Because we will treat you like family, you will take care of the Bahamian people as if they’re your own. So it’s a mutual agreement and we look forward to, and I look forward to you, as Minister of Health, to see you in the healthcare system performing excellently and doing an excellent job to help us through these difficult times and the pandemic.”
Julio Cesar Gonzalez Marchante of the Embassy of the Republic of Cuba said the country can depend on Cuba for help.
“I want to emphasise that (The) Bahamas can count (on) us and (for) personnel of health at any moment. . .we started with this group of nurses and other personnel, but at any other moment we can continue (to) make more (available).
“I’m stressing this cooperation because really we have the personal and professional that are needed here.”
Glenda Gonzalez Cursta, head nurse of the group, said they are excited to be in the country.
“We are very happy and excited to be here because it’s a country that is a friend to Cuba,” she said. “Also we want to help and we want to offer our service to your people here. We want to exchange knowledge, abilities, and skills and just to help all the people here in the pandemic moment.
“So for that reason we are very proud to be here.”
Felipe Archibald, who works in the intensive care unit, said he has worked in different countries, but is happy to be in The Bahamas.
“I am very happy to be here in (The) Bahamas because I feel our team will do (an) excellent job here… I feel this is a very special moment to help any kind of people because we are living so stressed because (of) this pandemic that’s why we are here to work like a family giving proper care to anybody that needs our effort.”
Comments
Topdude 2 years, 3 months ago
Will these nurses receive for themselves in their own personal bank accounts the same salaries as their Bahamian counterparts with equivalent training and experience? Or will the bulk of their salaries go back to Cuba and in turn they get an a small portion of the salary?
One can only hope that our Government is not contributing to the exploitation of these nurses by the Government of Cuba. And furthermore what is the visa status of these nurses? Are they provided with individual work permits ? Or are they part of a group permit tied to the Cuban Embassy? This way they are tied literally and figuratively to the Cuban Embassy just in case they exercise their human right to seek political asylum in the Bahamas or a third country?
Reliable sources say they will be fitted with electronic monitoring devices so all their movements on and off the job will be closely monitored.
I hope the Ministry of Health can please clarify these concerns?
Sickened 2 years, 3 months ago
That's Cuba's rules. We will pay their government and the government pays the people. Same thing happens when they send people to Venezuela for example.
tribanon 2 years, 3 months ago
It's better known as deplorable and despicable inhumane exploitation, aka human trafficking. And its being done by the Bahamian government with the assistance of international health organizations controlled by the Communist Chinese Party ("CCP"), e.g., WHO and its affilate the PAHO.
These Cuban nurses are victims of the CCP's growing influence in Cuba and The Bahamas. They will have had custody of their travel documents taken away from them by the Cuban embassy in The Bahamas and therefore are not free to travel anywhere, even back to their home country.
Topdude 2 years, 3 months ago
Thank you for augmenting the alarm we must raise about this modern day slavery. The Government of the Bahamas is therefore subsidizing the current Cuban Government and supporting COMMUNISM. This new practice is a destruction of the free labor markets in our country and will be used as cudgel to force the Bahamian professional to accept non-competitive salaries. We might as well forget free collective bargaining.
GodSpeed 2 years, 3 months ago
The Bahamas can't change Cuba, only Cuba can change Cuba
tribanon 2 years, 3 months ago
But we certainly should not be participating in what can only be regarded as human trafficking in order to benefit from the indentured servitude of Cuban nurses who are really being treated as slaves.
GodSpeed 2 years, 3 months ago
Indeed, where it is obvious we can do away with it. But don't forget just about most of the products we buy are made by essentially slave labor, and literal slave labor, in China, and we don't even think about it. From computers and iPhones to Nike Tennis shoes, clothing, hardware and many components for so many different things we use.
tribanon 2 years, 3 months ago
"....and we don't even think about it."
I think about it a lot, and for years now both my wife and I have gone out of our way, even at increased cost, not to buy products made in Communist China which are typically of inferior quality.
Admittedly it has become increasingly difficult to do so because much of corporate America has sold its soul to Communist China and the US government they control have relaxed altogether or watered-down the disclosure laws for where a product has been made/assembled.
GodSpeed 2 years, 3 months ago
That's commendable, if everyone were like this the problem would solve itself. Kudos, we need more people like you.
SP 2 years, 3 months ago
“You will be integrated into our healthcare system. We will treat you like family,” he told the nurses.
So we treat our own Bahamian nurses like shyt so much so that they are demoralized to the point of moving to the US and Canada in mass, but tell the Cubans "We will treat you like family"?
What kind of bullshyt is this?
GodSpeed 2 years, 3 months ago
The Cubans are cheaper. Welcome to globalization, I'm sure many Canadians and Americans don't like foreign nurses moving in on their turf either.
tribanon 2 years, 3 months ago
There's a big difference between free-will migration motivated by economic circumstances and the type of cruel and inhumane human trafficking that's going on here.
GodSpeed 2 years, 3 months ago
it's really no different than the Chinese hordes sent here to build roads, stadiums, hotel, embassy etc. I agree however, imo democratic nations shouldn't be doing business with Communists, period.
alfalfa 2 years, 3 months ago
I think it is a travesty of justice when the government will bring in 50 nurses from Cubs to work, and laud their training and qualifications, while 17 Bahamian pharmacists who were trained in the same system and university as these nurses, have had their licenses revoked. This was done mind you, under the previous administration, but this is something the New Day government should look into and rectify.
Proguing 2 years, 3 months ago
Next Chinese nurses?
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