14ymedio, Havana, 14 August 2024 — Honduras will send 170 general practitioners to Cuba to train in one of the 23 specialties offered by Cuban universities. The arrival of these health workers occurs through a scholarship program, similar to the one Cuba also has with other countries such as Mexico. For this first group, the Government of Xiomara Castro will disburse 30,000,000 lempiras (about $1,209,950), the newspaper La Prensa reported on Tuesday.
The Honduran doctors who will travel to Cuba were selected from 1,000 applicants. According to the same media, priority was given to recent graduates. “Young people are the ones who have the most time to serve,” said the Minister of the Secretariat of Social Development, José Cardona. What was stated by the official differs from the argument offered by the Ministry of Health (Sesal), which stated that “health workers were selected for their proximity to the areas where the new health system is being implemented.”
According to Sesal, the awarding of scholarships aims to have specialists who “are integrated into the new hospital network that is being built by the Administration of Honduras, which includes the construction of eight new hospitals.”
“Young people are the ones who have the most time to serve”
The measure takes place in the midst of the controversy over the hiring of 89 doctors in the Central American country. The Medical College of Honduras (CMH) claimed thi
