The International Medical Travel Journal reports today that Cuba is aiming to recruit more "medical tourists," or people who will travel there for medical services.
Cuba, which distributes "Cuba, Health Tourism" brochures with prices, already has a growing medical tourism operation from Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean. `
For example, since Cuba and the Dominican Republic established weekly flights between their countries last year, about 150 Dominicans have arrived in Cuba for medical treatments.
The World Trade Center Tampa Bag group has also encouraged the University of South Florida to begin a relationship with Cuba's medical schools. U.S. distaste for Cuba, however, might prove to be a foil, according to the article: "For Cuba, health tourism is not only a source of income, it is a tool for promoting Cuba's Communist system; and this explains the official American antagonism to the country."
In related news, Cuba was one of the first countries to send doctors to Haiti after the earthquake, where it already had 344 medical professionals working there full time.
Sources: Dominican Today
Photo: Dominican Today, Cuban doctors arriving in Haiti
Panama's long association with the United States has left a distinct American footprint in its culture, giving it more than a hundred years advantage over other countries in providing healthcare to American patients using US standards of quality and service. This can be seen in the similarities in Panama hospitals, medical procedures and practices, as well as the abundance of US trained and board certified doctors and medical staff.
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