Cuban doctors could be made available to relieve pressure on Ireland’s health service, if the Government requests assistance, according to the country’s embassy in Dublin.
Ambassador Bernardo Guanche Hernández was responding to calls from politicians on both sides of the Border for the recruitment of Cuban doctors to help tackle pressures on the health services in the Republic and Northern Ireland.
On Wednesday, health officials and councillors in Enniskillen held a video conference with officials from the Cuban embassy in London on foot of a proposal from a local political representative to seek help from the Caribbean nation.
Independent TD for Donegal Thomas Pringle had also called on the Government to ask the Cubans for assistance with our health service but said he had received no response from Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly.
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“If Ireland needs the collaboration of Cuba to strengthen its health system, we are in the best disposition to consider it,” Mr Hernández said. “We have not received an official request in this regard [but] it is something we have discussed with deputy Pringle.”
Thousands of Cuban doctors work in healthcare situations around the world, earning the country much-needed foreign cash.
“Cuba has demonstrated its ability to provide medical collaboration,” he said. “Until 2022, we had provided services in 165 countries with more than 605,698 employees. We currently serve 59 nations with 25,688 associates.”
On Wednesday, members of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council and the Western Trust, which is responsible for local hospital recruitment, discussed a proposal to recruit Cuban doctors with an official from the country’s embassy in London.
Independent councillor Eamon Keenan, who first proposed reaching out to Cuba for assistance in staffing the South West Acute Hospital in Enniskillen, said it was agreed to put the trust in contact with the Cuban medical services team, which provides long-term medical assistance internationally.
The council wrote to the London embassy in January querying whether the Henry Reeve Brigade could help in the area. The brigade specialises in disaster relief and serious epidemics.
“The meeting went very well, and it looks like we’re going to take this to the next stage,” Mr Keenan said. The local council has been asked to help find accommodation for any staff who are recruited from Cuba.
Mr Keenan said the hospital urgently needed four surgeons, with patients requiring operations having to travel to Belfast or Derry. Emergency general surgery at the hospital was temporarily suspended last November due to staff shortages.
Mr Pringle, who like Mr Keenan operates under the Independents 4 Change banner, said he had raised a similar proposal several times in the Dáil as well as writing to Mr Donnelly, but has yet to receive an official response.
“Cuba would be more than happy to do it but the request has to come first from the Irish side,” said Mr Pringle, who is convener of the Oireachtas Cuba Ireland Friendship Group.
Doctors coming to Ireland have to fulfil a variety of requirements before they can work here but Mr Pringle and Mr Keenan expressed confidence that the stipulations can be met.
The Health Service Executive, which relies heavily on overseas doctors to staff hospitals, plans to attract GPs internationally to Ireland, according to its service plan for this year.
