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Cuban doctors come to the aid of Meloni’s Italy
For the second time in four years, a brigade of Cuban doctors has come to Italy’s rescue — what began during the Covid crisis has now revealed a deeper crisis for Western capitalist healthcare, explain MARC VANDEPITTE and TOON DANHIEUX

AT the start of the corona crisis, Italy was overwhelmed by the virus. Everyone remembers the terrible images of overcrowded hospitals with dying patients. Cuba sent a medical brigade to help deal with the worst of the suffering. Once the pandemic was under control, Cuban doctors and nurses returned home.

About two years later, a brigade of medical personnel from Cuba went to Italy again, more specifically to Calabria, the southernmost part of Italy. The brigade is still active. This time there is no urgent emergency, but the problem is one of a serious and chronic shortage of Italian doctors in the region.

One example: almost half of all vacancies for emergency physicians went unfilled in Italy in 2020.

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Medicine for the people

Medicine for the money

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