Tufton : Jamaica hammering out new health MOU with Cuba

jamaica-gleaner.com · Feb 17, 2026 · Collected from GDELT

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Jamaica is renegotiating its long-running medical cooperation programme with Cuba amid renewed pressure from the United States. Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton confirmed that while the previous memorandum of understanding (MOU) has expired, nearly 300 Cuban doctors and specialists continue to serve under existing contracts. “It’s still in effect. We still have the Cuban workers here,” Tufton told The Gleaner. “There is a negotiation, though, that is taking place re the current agreement; the old one has expired and some conversations have been taking place, and that process is ongoing, lengthy and ongoing.” No new MOU has been signed, and Tufton acknowledged that outstanding requests from Jamaica could jeopardise a final deal. He declined to disclose the specific requirements being sought. “But we are waiting,” said Tufton, “and so the programme continues – the Cuban Eye Care Programme, the Cubans in hospitals and health centres that are doing work.” Late last year, scores of Cuban medics returned home, including a respected orthopaedic surgeon at the Kingston Public Hospital whose sudden departure left patients stunned. Some expressed sadness. “He took time to listen to the patients, he learnt the Patois so he could understand them, and he explained to them what was happening to them, and how he would treat them. He did not rough up the people, like some of the other people we have here. Because of that, his clinics were always full, and go on very long,” a hospital official, who did not want to be identified, told The Gleaner last week. Jamaica’s medical cooperation with Cuba stretches back more than 50 years and has become a pillar of the public health system. In a March 20, 2025 statement, Foreign Affairs Minister Kamina Johnson Smith said the programme remains “vital”, noting that a review had begun before international scrutiny intensified. That scrutiny has sharpened since the return of US President Donald Trump to the White House in January 2025. Washington has accused Cuba’s overseas medical missions of constituting forced labour and human trafficking – allegations repeatedly rejected by Caribbean leaders. In a Facebook post, the US Embassy in Barbados warned that foreign governments participating in the programme risk complicity in labour abuses, and urged Caribbean states to pursue “alternative methods” of recruiting healthcare workers. The US has also imposed visa restrictions on officials in the region. In 2025, Grenadian Finance Minister Dennis Cornwall was among those targeted over what Washington described as involvement in the Cuban medical mission scheme. Similar pressure has been reported in Antigua and Barbuda, and St Kitts and Nevis. Caribbean leaders have pushed back forcefully. St Lucia Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre said recently that the US had told his country to stop sending nationals to study medicine in Cuba – a claim Washington later said it had not “recently” discussed with Castries. Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley declared last year she would rather lose her US visa than abandon the Cuban partnership, rejecting claims that the programme amounts to human trafficking. Jamaica has also defended the programme. Cuba has trained hundreds of Caribbean doctors and dentists under government scholarships since the 1970s, many of whom now serve across the region. erica.virtue@gleanerjm.com