Pretoria, Jun 13 (Prensa Latina) The National Union of Education, Health and Related Workers of South Africa (Nehawu) today expressed its support for the presence and work of the Cuban medical brigade Henry Reeve in the country.
We have the strongest opinion that the deployment of Cuban doctors in the fight against Covid-19 was necessary, because they bring skills and experiences that we do not have in the country, the group maintains in a statement.
These well-trained doctors, he explains in the text, joined South Africa's fight against the pandemic because they have extensive knowledge and experience in health-related interventions, which are even rare in our private sector.
We also hope that, during your stay, you will transfer your skills to our doctors for future use.
The national union condemns those who question the expenses incurred by the Government in the national deployment of Cuban doctors. Those kinds of attacks, the Nehawu recalls, are also led by the United States Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo.
We find these pronouncements absurd, argues the Union, because both the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have praised Cuban health standards, as well as the high quality of graduate doctors on the island.
The main priority (in this battle against Covid-19), he highlights, is to save lives, and we believe that you cannot put a price on saving lives.
The Nehawu reiterates in its statement the call for all South Africans to cooperate and work hand in hand with the Cubans, and to share experiences and knowledge during their stay in the country.
Furthermore, we ask all our people to defend the Mandela-Castro Initiative as our means of improving the doctor-patient relationship, which is currently very low.
In this regard, Nehawu concludes in the text, we will continue to advocate for the extension of that bilateral cooperation initiative as a vehicle to help with the shortage of doctors in our health system.