Daily Times

KARACHI:  The office-bearers of Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) condoled the sad demise of former Cuban leader Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz on Monday.

Consequently, an urgent meeting was summoned at PMA House, Karachi. The meeting was chaired by PMA centre president, Prof Ashraf Nizami, from Lahore via video-call. PMA centre from USA treasurer, Dr Qazi M Wasiq, Dr Talha Khan Sherwani and Dr Khalid Bin Saleem, also participated through video-call from Lahore and Abbottabad respectively. PMA secretary general, Dr SM Qaisar Sajjad, and Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association (JPMA) Chairman, Dr Sarwar Jamil Siddiqui, were also present in Karachi.

In his press address, PMA secretary general, on the behalf of the members of the meeting, grieved the passing of Cuban leader and revolutionary, Fidel Castro whose most important legacies are Cuba’s Health and Education system.

He said that the reality of Cuba’s present-day healthcare system, however, stands in sharp contrast to some portrayals, even before 2000. In fact, despite economic sanctions designed to punish the communist country, healthcare remained and remains a top priority and a national goal.

PMA secretary general highlighted that Cuba’s sixty thousand doctors for a population of eleven million – that is, roughly one doctor per two hundred people – is a ratio that is unparalleled elsewhere in the world. Cuba’s Public Health Act of 1983 decrees free healthcare and low-cost prescription medications as a fundamental human right for every person.

A medication that costs over one hundred dollars in New York City, costs only five cents, in comparison, in Cuba. Furthermore, Cuba has a lower infant mortality rate (5.1 per thousand) than the United States (6.3 per thousand). Due to community based, free to all healthcare, Cuba has been declared the model health system by WHO. Castro’s government is also commended for granting 1000 scholarships to Pakistani students to become doctors in Cuba.

Cuba extended its medical services to the gravely affected northern areas of Pakistan during the massive earthquake hit of 2005. He said participants praised the model health care system of Cuba and demanded that the Pakistani government should follow in Cuba’s footsteps and ensure improved medical facilities in the nation.