Cuban Ambassador Miguel Angel Ramirez visited a clinic in the Trivandrum district of the southern state of Kerala, where he confirmed the success of a pilot program applying the Cuban healthcare model.
The clinic, located in a village on the outskirts of the state capital, has a network of doctors who attend specific communities with the help of nurses and social workers.
The patients are sent to the clinic according to a daily schedule of medical specialties similar to those used on the island.
For each patient, a medical history is drawn up and filed in a computerized database. Prevention and vaccination campaigns are carried out, and the high-risk population is attended according to the same parameters used in Cuba.
The clinic’s directors say all health indicators have gone up since the implementation of the new model, and costs and referrals have gone down, given that most cases are attended at the grassroots level, by the family doctor network. Two innovations introduced in Kerala include the use of cell phones by social workers to compile and collect data on the field, and home visits by doctors.
Miguel Angel Ramirez said the results were encouraging and that the model was being used in other parts of the state, with the support of local community councils.
Kerala has the best health indicators in India, with an infant mortality rate of 11 per 1,000 lives births, similar to that of many developed countries, and all births take place in medical centers.
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