Medicine in Cuba

The Cuban health system has three levels:
-primary care
-hospitals
-institutes

Primary Care
Cuba boasts about 10,000 doctors. Primary care docs are the first lien of defense and are assigned geographically. A doctor lives in his neighborhood with about 120-150 families that are geographically contiguous. The doctor works with a nurse and has the primary function of disease prevention. They are charged with screening for DD. They can refer anyone to a policlinic where their patient can access up to 16 services (dental, psychology, psychiatry, etc.) to follow up on identified needs. These multidisciplinary teams act as access to other parts of the health system, or may resolve a problem completely.

Hospitals
Cuba has a national network of hospitals, such as maternity centers and others. This national network of hospitals reportedly provides care anywhere and are sites for training medical students, including interns and fellows from other countries (reportedly some for the US)

Institutes
Devoted to treatment and research, institutes focus on specific areas such as cardiology, ophthalmology, mental health, DD, etc.

One of our speakers added that Cuba's greatest health problem was the use of self-care which delays medical care. People use herbs and natural healing to the exclusion of formal medicine. Medical personnel encourage both, but do not support sole use of natural remedies.