Saudi Arabia has signed an agreement with authorities in Cuba to import more medical professionals from the Caribbean island, expanding on a deal struck earlier this year.
The Communist state, whose healthcare system is consistently ranked as one of the world’s best, five months ago agreed to send 120 of its doctors a year to the Gulf kingdom. Under that deal, 30 doctors served three-month stints in Saudi Arabia.
As part of the new agreement, Cuban medical personnel will be stationed in the country permanently, where they will be responsible for training local doctors.
According to newspaper Cuba Standard, medical disciplines included in the agreement are gynaecology, intensive care, brain surgery and emergency medicine.
Cuban physicians are currently practicing at the King Saud Medical City and Prince Salman Hospital in Riyadh, the report added. All of the doctors from Cuba are trained in Arabic and English, it continued.
Cuba has been sending medical personnel abroad since its 1959 revolution, and is currently said to 43,000 of its healthcare professionals working in more than 100 countries.
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