Calabria, the case of Cuban doctors fleeing the public health service

The question was raised right from the start: the agreement signed in 2022 by the Region of Calabria with Cuba for the arrival of 497 doctors from the Caribbean island, in support of the Calabrian health system, had immediately appeared to be a correct intuition, but had raised some doubts, in particular with respect to the actual economic treatment of the professionals. Today, the first defections of the white-collar doctors who arrived from Havana - some to private clinics, some to other countries, or after their holidays, who ended up just off the radar - pose the problem in other terms, with repercussions on the fragile health system of Calabria.

The latest leak concerns the Jazzolino di Vibo Valentia, a hospital where an orthopaedist sent from Cuba, when his contract expired, chose the private sector instead of renewal in the public sector: a job at Villa dei Gerani, a facility accredited with the regional health service. The commissioner of the Asp Vittorio Piscitelli, former prefect of Reggio Calabria, who leads the commissioner trio, appointed a year ago after the dissolution of the body for mafia infiltration, says he is interdicted: "On the case I am waiting for the opinion of the prefecture and the police shortly," says Piscitelli, supported in his work by the executive Gianluca Orlando, an expert in accounting and financial management, and by Gandolfo Miserendino, general manager of Azienda Zero. I am not an expert on residence permits, but I need to understand whether everything is in order. As for the role of the Cuban brigade, its usefulness is out of the question, also in view of the planned expansion of our facility with Pnrr funds'.

Another Cuban left the same hospital a few months ago, on his way to Spain: 'His fiancée was supposed to join him,' adds the commissioner of the Asp in Vibo, 'also a doctor enrolled for Calabria, but from what I know, she was stopped at the airport. Other white coats arrived from Cuba on duty at some health facilities in the province of Cosenza are also 'missing'.

The case ended up in Parliament, with a question from M5S deputy Anna Laura Orrico, who called on governor Roberto Occhiuto 'to guarantee the working conditions of Cuban doctors called to operate in Calabria'. But it was above all a recent journalistic enquiry conducted by Cubanet.org, an independent Cuban newspaper, that turned the spotlight on the conditions of Cuban doctors on secondment from Cuba: it reported minimum salaries, deductions from overtime and thirteenth month bonuses, movements and social activities monitored, or rather controlled.

The President of the Calabria Region, Roberto Occhiuto, also in his capacity as Commissioner for Health, gives an entirely different reading of the facts: 'In recent years, ever since the Cuban doctors have been with us in Calabria, someone has cyclically made slanderous accusations, claiming that white Caribbean doctors are slaves, that they are controlled by the regime, that their families in Cuba are under special surveillance, and other such rubbish. The individual events of recent weeks, however, prove exactly the opposite. Cuban doctors in Calabria,' Occhiuto continues, 'are very free, perfectly integrated in the communities in which they work, some have even married. Calabrian patients appreciate their professionalism. Those who attack this model should agree with themselves. Of two things, either Cuban doctors are slaves or they can do what they want. And even with respect to remuneration, they receive around 4,700 euro gross per month in an Italian bank account, just like their Calabrian colleagues, and they also have, as an incentive, accommodation provided by the Region'.