Commander in Chief Fidel Castro participated in Monday’s inauguration of the 9th International Conference on Primary Health Care (PHC) that will run from March 6 to 10 at Havana’s International Conference Center. More than 1,000 delegates from 21 countries are expected to attend this year’s event.
During the opening, Dr. Jose Ramon Balaguer, Cuban Public Health minister, gave a keynote address on the history, evolution and current situation of PHC in Cuba. He said that PHC is the cornerstone and has been at the center of all the transformations in the national health system that have taken place since the 1959 triumph of the revolution; he called it "a patrimony of the humble."
"Our primary care —Balaguer noted— is state, socialist, free, comprehensive and equitable; in addition, it is characterized by universal coverage, efficiency and accessibility, and based on a concept of solidarity and internationalism."
The minister pointed out that PHC in Cuba has established international precedents in public health for its originality and modern approach, especially in the development of its model for family medicine that began in 1984.
When the first conference on PHC was held in 1986, Cuba had 600 family practitioners and nurses; today that number has increased many times over.
Balaguer spoke about the important achievements of Cuban PHC, which he said were thanks to the constant dedication and preoccupation of the State to improve the quality of life of all Cubans. Among the accomplishments he noted the reduction in infant mortality (5.2 per 1000 live births so far this year), the increase in life expectancy to 75 years, the more than 71,000 practicing doctors (3,000 of whom are family doctors) and the extent to which basic health coverage has reached all rural areas.
Currently, and as part of a number of new social programs being implemented in the framework of what Cuba has termed as "Battle of Ideas," the Public Health System on the island is reaching its full potential, based on the premise of achieving excellence in medial attention and being an integral part of citizen well-being.
The country’s polyclinics have improved their services, increasing public health awareness, prevention, diagnosis and rehabilitation. The clinics have also improved their protection of specific segments of the population and their use of new health technologies.
Dr. Balaguer also spoke about the humanistic and internationalist focus of Cuban Medicine. From 1963 to 2004 more than 70,000 Cuban healthcare professionals have worked in 70 countries. Furthermore, over 3,000 healthcare professionals from around the world have been trained in Cuba.
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