The Mais Médicos do Brasil program offers almost six thousand vacancies for healthcare professionals. In this sense, more than three thousand Cubans dedicated to this field of labor have registered.However, Cuban applicants must compete against more than 34,000 registered Brazilian professionals. It is right to make it clear that South Americans have priority in access to this invitation because it is their country.
For this reason, the Brazilian government has tried to increase the representation of doctors from that country with different incentives. Examples of this are: salary increments and educational opportunities. This was reported by EFE news agency.
In other words, 58% of those enrolled in the Mais Médicos program are professionals trained in Brazil. However, 42% are foreigners or Brazilians who have studied outside the country.
According to data from the Ministry of Health in Brazil, of those 42%, 9.5% (3,235) were professionals trained in Cuba. But before the Cubans, 4,294 professionals from Paraguay (13%) and 4,846 professionals trained in Bolivia (14%) were registered.
Controversies about Mais Médicos…
Precisely, this significant percentage of doctors trained abroad is one of the most controversial points of the program.
For this reason, the Federal Council of Medicine was against Mais Médicos’ right to practice in Brazil. All this without proving the training and preparation of doctors.
Likewise, Brazilian right-wing media and politicians have already denounced some issues related to Cuba. In fact, these groups allege that the country siphons off a large percentage of doctors’ salaries.
A clear example of total opposition to this plan is Jair Bolsonaro. The former Brazilian president had promised to review the employment of Cuban health professionals in his country.
Likewise, it demanded that Caribbean doctors reassess the title and work under the same working conditions as those employed in other countries.
The result?: Cuba withdrew its doctors from Brazil in November 2018. However, in 2020, the Bolsonaro government rehired 2,350 Cuban doctors who worked on the program and decided to stay in Brazil.
