Portugal’s health ministry has spent €12 million on hiring Doctors from Cuba.
The chairman of the Medical Council, José Manuel Silva, today said the Ministry of Health does not offer Portuguese doctors similar terms and conditions as the Cubans had cost up to €5,900 a month, somewhat more than local Doctors.
Silva politely suggested that the government might wish to pay the same to home grown Portuguese doctors, as well as re-employing "retired Portuguese Doctors who have a specialty, who are of higher quality, who have no language or cultural barriers and understand patients as patients understand them.”
Cuban professionals earn €96 per hour, triple the sum that Portuguese law allows when hiring local Doctors.
The money does not all go to the Cuban Doctors as under the agreement between the two countries Portugal happily is subsidising the Cuban health service.
Of the €5,900 a month that was being paid in 2009 for each Cuban Doctor, the Doctor received around €900 and the Cuban health service received the balance of around €5,000 per Doctor per month.
The rate was dropped to €4,230 a month following a review in 2011 but since 2009 the scheme has cost the Portuguese taxpayer an estimated €12 million.
The current agreement divides the cost of travel to and from Cuba with one free flight allowed per Doctor per year.
The Portuguese ministry somehow sees this as a wonderful deal and aims to employ 100 Doctors from Cuba by 2016.
