{"id":8367,"date":"2024-01-30T08:12:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-30T08:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/?p=8367"},"modified":"2024-01-29T23:36:52","modified_gmt":"2024-01-29T23:36:52","slug":"giving-us-oxygen-italy-turns-to-cuba-to-help-revive-ailing-health-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/giving-us-oxygen-italy-turns-to-cuba-to-help-revive-ailing-health-system\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Giving us oxygen\u2019: Italy turns to Cuba to help revive ailing health system"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Almost 500 Cuban health workers deployed across Calabria amid severe shortage of doctors<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Cuban surgeon Asbel D\u00edaz Fonseca, centre right, performs laparoscopy surgery at Santa Maria degli Ungheresi hospital in Polistena. Photograph: Roberto Salomone\/The Guardian <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the operating theatre at a hospital in Calabria, Asbel D\u00edaz Fonseca and his team are preparing to perform abdominal surgery on a man in his sixties. They deliberate over which medical technique to use \u2013 the French or US model \u2013 before deciding on the latter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But their main topic of pre-op conversation is food, namely which pizza is best: Neapolitan or Calabrian. There are subtle differences between the two, they say, but with a Neapolitan medic in the room, diplomacy prevails and they conclude that both types taste as good as each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This may not sound out of the ordinary for Italian chitchat, but Fonseca is not a local man. He has worked at the Santa Maria degli Ungheresi hospital in Polistena, a town surrounded by mountains in the southern Italian region, for a year. But he is originally from Cuba<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 38-year-old surgeon is among the hundreds of health workers from the Caribbean island brought in to fill a drastic shortage of doctors across Calabria, one of the poorest regions in western Europe<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe main principles of our training are solidarity and humanity,\u201d said Fonseca. \u201cWe take our skills to countries in need, especially where the health system is suffering. Italy<\/a> has good doctors and all the right technology, but is lacking professionals in many specialties.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two nationwide strikes in December brought the myriad issues blighting Italy\u2019s healthcare system to the fore. Spurred by government proposals to reduce pensions, the 24-hour strikes reignited the debate over gruelling shift patterns and poor pay amid an exodus of staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Asbel<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Asbel D\u00edaz Fonseca, 38, says: \u2018There is no obligation for us to do this. We are here because we want to be.\u2019 Photograph: Roberto Salomone\/The Guardian<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coronavirus pandemic was the catalyst for many to leave; more than 11,000 health workers have left the public system since 2021. Italian medics were frontline heroes<\/a> when the country became the first in Europe to be engulfed by Covid-19. However, the fines issued<\/a> to some for flouting overtime rules during the pandemic were a reflection of how quickly their efforts were forgotten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stressed medical professionals are now either retiring early, switching to the private sector, or seeking better opportunities abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Italy\u2019s poorer south, the public health system had endured neglect for years before the pandemic, with severe cost-cutting leading to the closure of dozens of hospitals. The mafia and political corruption have also taken their toll on services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polistena has a population of almost 10,000, but its hospital, one of the last surviving in the area, serves 200,000 people in towns across neighbouring provinces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To remedy the problem, Calabria\u2019s regional government called on Cuba, famous worldwide for dispatching medical brigades to assist with saving lives, most often during times of humanitarian calamity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic paved the way for the first missions to otherwise prosperous European countries \u2013 specifically to Bergamo, the northern Italian province that experienced one of the deadliest outbreaks<\/a> of Covid-19, and Andorra. Portugal has also recently sought Cuban reinforcements after suffering shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost 500 health workers from Cuba, covering all specialisms, are now scattered across hospitals in Calabria. Eighteen are in Polistena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Asbel<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Asbel D\u00edaz Fonseca, pictured right talking to a colleague, is one of 18 Cuban medics in Polistena. Photograph: Roberto Salomone\/The Guardian<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cuban assistance was initially met with scepticism from the Italian health workers. \u201cThey didn\u2019t like it,\u201d said Francesca Liotta, the director of Santa Maria degli Ungheresi hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that changed once the Cuban medics learned the Italian language and got to know their colleagues, bringing a fresh wave of energy to the hospital team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have the kind of enthusiasm I remember having when I started my career,\u201d said Liotta, who is close to retiring. \u201cI always say this: they are giving us oxygen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Guardian visited Polistena after a holiday weekend during which the hospital, a building in desperate need of modernisation, was busy dealing with emergency operations after an increase in road accidents. Internet problems were also causing delays in registering patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s relentless,\u201d said Liotta. \u201cYou fix one problem, and then something else breaks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is Fonseca\u2019s first mission in Europe. A surgeon with 10 years\u2019 experience, he has been dispatched on postings around the globe, including two years in Mauritania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The overseas brigades generate huge revenues for Cuba\u2019s communist government, making it a crucial economic lifeline for the country. The missions are also a way of increasing Havana\u2019s soft power. However, Fonseca rejects critics who say health workers are being exploited in order to fill the regime\u2019s coffers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a total lie,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is no obligation for us to do this. We are here because we want to be here. We also learn from the experiences. It is a two-way exchange.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Edoardo<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Eduardo Gongora, 36, works in the emergency unit, says his Calabrian colleagues have been very welcoming. Photograph: Roberto Salomone\/The Guardian<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To date, the initiative in Calabria has proven to be so effective that it has been extended until at least 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eduardo Gongora, 36, works in the emergency unit and has just signed a new one-year contract. \u201cThe most satisfying thing is working alongside our Calabrian colleagues. They have a similar warmth to Cubans and have been very welcoming,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The medics from Cuba have similarly been embraced by residents in Polistena, using downtime to go to the gym, trek in the mountains or let off steam in the karaoke bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome of us do enjoy a little singing,\u201d said Saidy Gallegos P\u00e9rez, a physiatrist (rehabilitation medicine) who has opted to spend another year in the town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberto Occhiuto, the rightwing president of the Calabrian region, was criticised when he first broached the idea of calling in Cuban reinforcements. \u201cBut the experiment has been positive,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not me saying it, but the Italian doctors who are working with Cubans, and the Calabrian patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI knew that Cuban medicine was one of the best in the world and today the same people who criticised me are clamouring for more Caribbean medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for Liotta, who still frets over being able to fill the hospital shift schedule with an adequate number of staff, a longer-term cure is needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are just not enough people going into the public system,\u201d she said. \u201cI look at the young ones, and they are well prepared, but exhausted. The Cubans have helped revive the team spirit, but I worry about what will happen after 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: The Guardian<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost 500 Cuban health workers deployed across Calabria amid severe shortage of doctors<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101011,"featured_media":8368,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cuba","category-featured"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8202,"url":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/cuban-medical-specialists-drafted-in-to-bolster-italys-struggling-health-system\/","url_meta":{"origin":8367,"position":0},"title":"Cuban medical specialists drafted in to bolster Italy’s struggling health system","author":"Editorial Team","date":"August 20, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the years spending cuts in public health have slowed down the recruitment of new doctors in all Italian regions, especially those facing the biggest health system challenges, like Calabria, in the South of Italy. 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