Healthcare Workers to Tour Cuba

When Michael Moore directed the documentary SiCKO (Dog Eat Dog Films, 2007), he portrayed Cuba's public health system as an international elite that offers residents free, famously effective, cradle-to-grave medical care that rivals anything offered in the United States and Canada. Some observers challenge any glowing appraisals offered by Moore and others as being at least partially the products of a despotic propaganda machine whose gears are cranked by the Castro dictatorship. The truth about our "forbidden" neighbor's famous health system is one that few Americans have witnessed firsthand since the 1963 U.S. embargo, but this fall, a commercial touring company will take a group of healthcare practitioners on a face-to-face tour of the island's healthcare organizations and facilities.

Cuba Education Tours, of Vancouver, British Columbia, announced on June 23 that it will take a "delegation" of healthcare providers to Havana from October 11 through 18, 2008, and that positions in the tour are still open. According the touring company, "the exploratory program allows participants to travel to Cuba legally under current U.S. regulations." It notes that the program is "legal and licensable for professionals engaged in full-time work related to this tour's theme," and that "most delegates will treat this tour as a tax-deductible, professional-development, fact-finding mission. Certificates of completion are issued, and in some cases qualify for CME and CEU credits." During a phone call with The O&P EDGE, a representative of the company confirmed that orthotists, prosthetists, and others working and studying in the profession, as well as their spouses and partners, are welcome to come.

Cuba Education Tours' website lists a packed touring schedule. Visits to a hospital, a local clinic, museums, and music shows will be interspersed with activities including discussions with officials of the Cuban ministry of health, an introduction to members of the Cuban Association for the Physically Disabled (ACLIFIM), a visit to the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM), a meeting at the National Center for Sexual Education (CENESEX), and a visit to a facility for youth with disabilities.

The website also lists a set of visitors' "most common questions" and the tour company's answers. They include:

• Is Cuban food good? It's healthy and tasty but not spicy.
• Am I free to ask any question? You'll insult your island hosts by being less than candid.
• Are vaccinations needed? No.
• Can Americans join? They are especially welcome to do so!

Participants will stay at the five-star Hotel Nacional de Cuba in Havana and will travel in an air-conditioned "luxury coach" (a bus) from site to site. And while the website promises "five-star treatment round-the-clock... for worry-free travel abroad," Cuba is still considered a Third World nation. The touring company advises travelers to bring their own toilet paper, tampons, and condoms, and to drink only bottled water. They also advise making room in luggage to carry to local healthcare groups some badly needed donations--medical supplies, shorts, and shoes.

The cost for the tour is $2,192 in either U.S. or Canadian dollars, which excludes airfare and most meals.

For more information, visit http://cubafriendship.org