- Cuban specialists will add to 40 from China who arrived in Botswana last month
BONGANI MALUNGA
Botswana is set to welcome 102 medical specialists from Cuba after the two countries renewed an arrangement that has been in existence since 1989.
The Cuban specialists will be deployed to various hospitals across the country.
As confirmed by the Ministry of Health recently, the two nations signed a Memorandum of Agreement centred on cooperation in specialised medical health care.
The MoA was signed by Dr Edwin Dikoloti on behalf of Botswana while the Cuban Ambassador to Botswana Orlando Alvarez did likewise for Cuba.
Ambassador Alvarez’s declaration
The signing of the MoA and the coming of the 102 medical personnel is part of implementation of Ambassador Alvarez’s 2023 declaration that Cuba would continue to provide Botswana with specialised medical personnel.
Ambassador Alvarez made the declaration on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Cuban International Medical Collaboration last year.
Through this initiative, Cuba has sent over 600 000 medical professionals to 165 countries around the world.
Chinese specialists
The Cuban medical practitioners will add to 40 medical specialists from China who arrived in Botswana last month.
The Chinese contingent consists of doctors and nurses who will be deployed to Princess Marina Referral Hospital in Gaborone and Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital in Francistown for a period of two years.
The Chinese Embassy to Botswana released a media statement confirming that the 40 medical specialists were picked from the best hospitals in the Fujian Province in the Asian country.
The list of Chinese specialists includes paediatricians, surgeons, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and theatre nurses, oncologists and anaesthetists.
130 000 operations
According to the Chinese Embassy, China and Botswana have been collaborating in the medical field since 1981. In that span 557 Chinese medical experts and skilled practitioners have been deployed to Botswana.
The Embassy further stated that in the 43-year long partnership, the Chinese specialists have performed 130 000 operations.
The supplementary arrival of Chinese and Cuban medical specialists is expected to go a long way in addressing the shortage of medical practitioners in Botswana.