training

Year of family medicine established: 1984 (Arya et al., 2017)

Type of Training: Residency Program, with an Internship (WHO, 2011)

Length of Training: Training consists of 4-6 years of Medical School (Arya et al., 2017), followed by a 2-year Residency Program, and a year of interning. 

Number of family medicine residents graduating each year: There are 15,000 students studying medicine in Cuban universities (Gorry, 2017).

practice

Number of family doctors: 33, 000 (WHO, 2011)

Physician to population ratio: On average, there are 751.9 physicians per 100,000 patients (World Bank).

DALY: 13,937 per 100,000 individuals (Due to all Causes).

Life Expectancy:

• Females 2017: 81.9 years

• Males 2017: 78.0 years

Mortality rate 2017:

• 2017 Males: 104 per 1,000 male adults.

• 2017 Females: 69 per 1,000 female adults.

Infant Immunization-HepB3: % of 1-year-old children received: 99%

College of Family Physicians (Y or N):

• NO

training

Little is currently known about Cuba’s training.

practice

Along with physicians, there are internists, pediatricians, obstetrics and gynecologists (WHO, 2011). A typical day for a Cuban physician involves seeing patients in the clinic in the morning and making home visits to patients in the community in the afternoon (Gorry, 2017). Physicians act as gatekeepers in polyclinics when referring patients to other specialists (Gorry, 2017). In Cuba, family physicians work a community-based polyclinic model serving on average 30,000-60,000 patients. The polyclinics act as the organizational hub for 20-40 neighbourhood based family doctor and nurse offices. Primary care is also provided in hospitals (Gorry, 2017).