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There are around 270 Cuban doctors working in Calabria. Cuba has been sending medical staff abroad for decades, but now for the first time on a large scale to a European country. A report from Gioia Tauro shows how well this works.
Gioia Tauro’s hospital is small. Dairobis Monier Fernández is standing at the entrance to the emergency room. “I come from Pinar del Río, which is in the very west of the Caribbean island,” says Monier.
He studied medicine in the capital Havana and later saved lives in various Cuban emergency departments. Monier has been working in Gioia Tauro for over a year now. He’s not the only Cuban here.
Legend:
Cuban-born doctor Dairobis Monier Fernández in the emergency room of the hospital in Gioia Tauro.
SRF/Franco Battel
A total of 270 doctors from the Caribbean are working in Gioia Tauro and other cities in Calabria. There has never been anything like this in Italy. The regional president of Calabria, Roberto Occhiuto, called them in due to the lack of staff. He politicizes for Forza Italia, founded by Silvio Berlusconi. The very party that claims to be strictly anti-communist relies on personnel from communist Cuba.
The Cuban doctors receive around 3,000 euros net per month. They transfer part of it to the Cuban state treasury. Voluntarily, as the Cubans assert. Others say this is done under duress.
The boys leave the south
Around 40,000 people live in Gioia Tauro and the surrounding area. Despite the large international port, the city is poor. The Calabrian mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta, has established itself. The streets have holes and there is a lot of rubbish lying around. In the evening, when it gets dark and cool, there is a sharp smell of smoke. Because many people heat with wood in the middle of the city.
Calabria is at the bottom of almost all Italian statistics. Also in healthcare. Mimmo Caglioti is not Cuban. He is a Calabrian through and through and runs the hospital in Gioia Tauro. At the reception he explains why Calabria has to hire Cuban staff: “Young people are leaving Calabria to study, many of them heading to northern Italy.” Once you leave the south, you usually never return.
Gioia Tauro’s hospital closed department after department over the years due to a lack of money. Today gynecology and orthopedics are missing and surgery only treats skin diseases. You can no longer operate on an appendix or a hernia here. Not to mention really big interventions. Nevertheless, Caglioti is confident. “Surgery and orthopedics should reopen in two years.” The Calabria region promised him that.
The toenail on the little toe
In the parking lot in front of the clinic, patients and passers-by are significantly less confident. A passer-by describes her situation with this drastic image: “We feel like a toenail on our little toe.” Which means: “We are at the bottom, no one cares about us.”
Those who can somehow afford it can have themselves or their relatives treated in Rome or Milan. Not only are many boys leaving Calabria, but patients are also turning their backs on their region.
Legend:
The emergency department of the hospital in Gioia Tauro in Calabria.
SRF/Franco Battel
Clinic director Caglioti concludes: “The Cubans are a very pleasant surprise.” You only hear good things about the “doctores”. “They supply this region with the oxygen it urgently needs,” says Caglioti.
The Cuban embassy in Rome says: Other regions of Italy would also be interested in Cuban personnel. Cuba is definitely ready.