The Government of Brazil prepares to hire again part of the 1,800 Cuban doctors who are still in the country after breaking a cooperation agreement with Havana in November 2018 after the attacks of now president, Jair Bolsonaro, who accused the professionals of forming “guerrilla nuclei”. However, there are 757 vacancies due to the abandonment of Brazilian doctors hired to replace Cubans in the most vulnerable municipalities.
During the fall 2018 election campaign, Bolsonaro repeated that Cubans arrived in the country through the program More Doctors –established by the Government of Dilma Rousseff– They were in Brazil to “form guerrilla nuclei” and compared the contracting model with “slavery”. The Cuban doctors worked in Brazil through an agreement with Cuba in which the Government of the island kept 70% of the salary. Havana has similar agreements with other countries that generate about 9,000 million euros a year.
The Cuban Executive suspended the program following the criticism of Bolsonaro and repatriated part of the professionals. However, about 1,800 stayed in Brazil. And these may rejoin the primary care system in the coming weeks. The Brazilian Government prepares an official announcement for the same month that provides for its readmission with a two-year permanency contract. And it will not be necessary for them to have passed the so-called invalid call – proof that it allows the homologation in Brazil of diplomas obtained abroad.
According to data from the Ministry of Health, there are 757 vacancies due to the constant abandonment of Brazilian doctors hired to replace Cubans in the most vulnerable municipalities. As the More Doctors program intended, the plan is for Cubans to fill these places and reinforce the primary care network in the cities of extreme poverty and difficult access in Brazil, which historically have more difficulties in maintaining the Brazilian doctors.
The Ministry of Health maintains that the decision is not from the Government, but the result of a law passed by Parliament. After the agreement with the Cubans was annulled, the Government created a new program, called Doctors for Brazil, which went through the National Congress. A parliamentary amendment by a senator included the exceptional re-contracting of Cubans who already belonged to the previous program. President Bolsonaro sanctioned the law.
Last year, the Government has already signaled the intention to reinstate these professionals. The program coordinator, Mayra Pinheiro, got in touch with some of the doctors through Telegram, even during the period of government transition.
Places to cover
Now, with the reinstatement, Cuban doctors will receive the allocation of the program in its entirety, which is about 12,000 reais (just over 2,500 euros). The Secretary of Primary Care of the Ministry of Health, Erno Harzheim, explains that the call will be specifically aimed at Cuban professionals who were working in primary care through More Doctors on November 13, 2018 (when Cuba announced its departure from the program).
Another requirement is that they have remained in Brazil until August 1, 2019, on condition of naturalized, residents (some married in Brazil) or with asylum application. That was the day when the new government program, Doctors for Brazil, was officially created. “A public contest will not be called. All 1,800 Cuban doctors who meet these criteria will be cited, ”says Harzheim. The number of contracted will depend on their presentation.
Bolsonaro’s objections
The work of Cubans in primary care was a controversial issue of the federal program of Workers Party (PT) and criticized by Jair Bolsonaro since he was a member of the Chamber of Deputies.
Bolsonaro questioned the ability of these professionals, who had permission to practice medicine exclusively in the More Doctors program without having to approve their diplomas. “We are going to expel the Cuban exam from Brazil to revalidate,” he said in an interview granted during the presidential campaign.
Since the end of cooperation with Cuba, hundreds of Cuban doctors await a gesture from Bolsonaro to return to practice in Brazil. Exempt from carrying out the homologation exam of the Medicine degree since 2017, they worked performing general services, which ranged from alternative therapies to the practice of health center supervisors. The struggle to return to the program encountered resistance from the medical class. The Federal Council of Medicine historically vindicates the requirement of the revalidation and the offer of places exclusively for professionals of the Brazilian medical record.
The Bolsonaro Government works a gradual transition from the former More Doctors to Doctors for Brazil, now focused on the most vulnerable cities. To fill vacancies after Cuba’s decision to terminate the agreement, the Government initially opened calls addressed only to Brazilian professionals. When not all the seats were filled, new calls were opened for Brazilian doctors trained abroad who had not been able to homologate their titles in Brazil. But now, with at least 757 vacancies only in the most vulnerable cities due to the lack of substitutes, the Government will reinstate the Cubans.
– .
