BL Premium reports that it emerged on Tuesday that the Cuban health-care team that arrived in SA at the weekend to help combat Covid-19 is set to cost the taxpayer hundreds of millions of rand.
The Cuban "medical brigade" was sent to SA after a request by President Cyril Ramaphosa to his Cuban counterpart, Miguel Díaz-Canel. The health department’s initial costing projected the annual bill would run to R440m for a "medical brigade" of 187 Cuban personnel. An even bigger contingent arrived in SA on Sunday, consisting of 217 personnel. It is not clear at this stage if the costing has been revised or where the money to finance this initiative will come from. The SA Medical Association (Sama) expressed concern about the initiative, saying that there were plenty of unemployed and retired doctors in SA who could have been recruited by the government before it turned to Cuba. The Cuban team, which includes family physicians, epidemiologists, biostatisticians and health technologists, is at present in quarantine at a Pretoria hotel. They are expected to assist provincial health departments tackle SA’s coronavirus epidemic. According to Limpopo health MEC Phophi Ramathuba, the province needed "serious assistance", but its biggest headache was its shortage of specialists, not generalists.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Tamar Kahn at BusinessLive (paywall access only)
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