Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 5 July 2017

Some Cubans choose dose of private medicine despite price

treatments that require so- the country, leaving only $32 and a gallbladder sur-
phisticated technology. A about 5,000.The revolution- gery $36 — costs dramati-
growing number of Cubans ary government poured cally lower than in most na-
in recent years have be- resources into health care, tions due in part to the low
gun to complain about the and there are now 70,000 salaries for medical work-
quality of free medical ser- doctors — many of whom ers, but still significant to
vices, which many say has serve on medical missions Cubans, who on average
been affected by doctors in other countries, which make the equivalent of
leaving on international have become a significant about $20 to $30 a month.
health missions or moving source of income for the Still, a few Cubans pre-
to countries such as the U.S. government. Only a hand- fer paying for private
in search of higher salaries ful of private practitioners treatment. Among them
and a better quality of life. remain because no new is Mayra Hernandez, a
Martha Garcia, a 72-year- ones have been allowed in 55-year-old hotel worker
old retiree, has been visiting more than half a century. who said getting treated
In this June 8, 2017 photo, podiatrist Serafin Barca poses for a Barca for her foot problems President Raul Castro has by Barca is worth paying for
photo with a patient in his clinic in Havana, Cuba. The 80-year- for more than a decade. allowed the legal privatiza- the bus trip to his office and
old podiatrist is one of the last private medical workers in “I could go to the Policlini- tion of businesses ranging the fee he charges.
communist Cuba, which prides itself on its free, universal state co, but I don’t get the help from cafeterias to mason- “He’s the best podiatrist in
health care. I need when I’ve gone be- ries to hair salons, but pro- Havana and all of Cuba,”
(AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa) cause they say they don’t fessionals including doc- she said, adding that she
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ Barca graduated in his have the necessary equip- tors and engineers, lawyers visited public clinics but
Associated Press specialty after four years ment,” she said of a free and architects have not was unable to get the
HAVANA (AP) — For a dol- of study. Barca is busy from health clinic in Havana. been given the same op- treatment she needed. She
lar, Cuban podiatrist Sera- morning until night treating She envisions private prac- portunity. For now, there said she’d been 10th in line
fin Barca will spend a half patients frustrated with the tices for optometrists, phys- are no signs state authori- at one when “the specialist
hour cutting the corns off inefficiency of the state sys- iotherapists and others. ties will expand that liberal- came out and said, ‘I have
a senior citizen’s foot, or tem. “The service is of high- “This would allow the state ization to the medical field, five scalpels and that’s it.’”
nearly an hour removing a er quality,” Barca said. “If to take charge of more considered strategic by the Barca said he will continue
stubborn wart. you get a patient and you complex things,” she said. government. to welcome patients into
The 80-year-old is among don’t treat them well ... you Cuba continued to allow Officials have tried to raise his crowded office as his
the last private medi- don’t get them back.” private medical practices awareness among Cubans health permits. He works
cal workers in communist Some Cubans believe for the first few years after about the value of its medi- four seven-hour days a
Cuba, which prides itself that allowing more private the 1959 revolution. But cal services, though. week. “I like my profes-
on its free, universal state practices would improve as the country veered to- Posters at clinics across the sion,” he said as he sat in
health care and which services and help ease the ward socialism and the island tell patients of the his small office with worn
has barred the creation of state’s burden, allowing it health system was nation- costs the government is seats and aging furniture
new private medical prac- to concentrate on more alized, about half of Cu- paying: a consultation is $1, that seemed frozen in time
tices since 1963 — the year complicated surgeries and
ba’s doctors poured out of an X-ray nearly $4, an MRI since the 1950s.q

US-Cuba sea mission finds healthy reefs, invasive lionfish

By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ recent years. aboard a boat that sailed National Park Service and new American transactions
Associated Press “We found an incredible more than 1,400 nautical Cuba’s Ministry of Science, with Cuban military-linked
HAVANA (AP) — A joint amount of diversity, espe- miles around Cuba in May Technology and Environ- businesses and restrict
U.S.-Cuban expedition to cially in algae and spong- and June. ment. some U.S. travel to the is-
explore the island’s coral es, and the reefs were in Scientists said the mission Florida Atlantic Univer- land.
reefs uncovered a surpris- incredible health as well,” was made possible by the sity provided technology “Environment and science
ingly healthy ecosystem said Patricia Gonzalez of restoration of diplomatic aboard the boat that al- are two issues that every-
and large schools of mack- the Marine Investigations relations between Havana lowed specialists to ob- one can agree on,” said
erel with significant com- Center at the University of and Washington two years serve coral reefs at a depth Dan Whittle of the Environ-
mercial value, scientists in- Havana. “Some of the most ago under then-President of over 200 feet (60 meters), mental Defense Fund. “It’s
volved in the mission said fascinating results have to Barack Obama and his Cu- participants said. fairly apolitical, and if you
Tuesday. do with widespread coral ban counterpart, Raul Cas- Scientists predicted such look into the Trump Na-
The study also found alarm- coverage, in some cases tro. cooperative ventures will tional Security Directive,
ingly high numbers of inva- up to 70 and 80 percent ... It was a result of an agree- continue despite current there’s a line in there that
sive lionfish, which is not na- and some species we be- ment signed in 2015 be- President Donald Trump’s identifies science and the
tive to the Western Hemi- lieve are new.” tween the U.S. National new policy toward the environment as one area
sphere and has become a The preliminary findings Oceanic and Atmospheric communist-run country, of engagement that will
growing marine menace in came from an expedition Administration, the U.S. which would prohibit most continue.”q