Cuban healthcare providers in Venezuela: a case study

Approximately 31,000 Cuban healthcare providers reside in Venezuela as part of an initiative to increase Venezuelans' access to health care. The concept began in 1999 as part of the new constitution, and has grown steadily to include 6000 clinics, health promotion and prevention programmes, an integrated healthcare system, and a vision to train and deploy community public health physicians selected from and trained within the neighbourhood. In the case study described herein, physician-patient consultations increased from 3.5 million to 17 million, and the numbers of primary care physicians, nurses and dentists increased dramatically. Furthermore, in Caracas, there has been a 30% reduction in the use of emergency rooms at public hospitals. Estimates are provided for preventive services and potential lives saved. As health care is a politically-laden issue in many countries, all approaches to reducing healthcare disparities are worth analysing for their potential contributions to population health improvement.