Surinamese specialists accused of sabotaging Cuban colleagues

(de Ware Tijd) PARAMARIBO – Health Minister Celcius Waterberg accused Surinamese medical specialists of obstruction towards their Cuban colleagues, quoting his Justice and Police colleague ‘even among the white collars there are criminals’. Waterberg told Parliament that surgery room equipment in AZP has been sabotaged. Cables have been cut and the doctor’s chair has been dissembled. ‘It shows how much these people love their fellow men. I wonder how people could become doctors if they don’t care at all for other people’s lives,’ Waterberg added, promising a police investigation. Premdew Lachman, legislator for MC/NS wondered how the Minister would cushion the shortage of doctors. ‘Will you continue to send for Cuban doctors?’ Winston Jessurun (NF/DA 91) thinks it is wrong the Minister should accuse specialists arguing ‘that if the Minister thinks this about specialists, I fear his policy.’ Jessurun admits that health care in Cuba is on a very high level, but that does not mean that every doctor coming from that island is a high level expert. ‘These revelations have shocked me. I can’t imagine such things to happen in health care. It’s a very sensitive matter that has to be dealt with carefully’, says Ricardo Panka. Ruth Wijdenbosch, acting Speaker, called on the legislative body to await the results of the police investigation and refrain from creating unnecessary tension between Surinamese and Cuban specialists.