"This institution will produce not only doctors but also a doctrine of what a doctor should be and the responsibility held by the professionals who look after health, physical well being and human life".
Quotes
"We are proud of our medical system. We will continue to trust the integrity of our doctors. May none of them ever be swayed by the temptation to grant privileges to someone offering a gift. There is no need to turn down a gift offered to a doctor as a sign of gratitude. What a Cuban doctor must never do is discriminate against a citizen of our country who does not have the resources to offer a gift or is not in the habit of doing so. May corruption and bribes never enter the ranks of our health care workers".
"Private medicine grants privileges to those who have money to the detriment of those who do not have it and nothing could be more inhumane than that. It is unbelievable that rich societies that apply this and many other similar policies speak of human rights and humanity when their own system is the most inhumane, the most egotistic, the most individualistic and the most alienating".
"We will establish, with the utmost urgency, a modern and efficient doping control laboratory that will cooperate with the countries of the region that require it. Likewise, as we have done in the field of medicine where we are also a major force, we will not only contribute to the development of sports through cooperation with Cuban specialists but are also seriously considering the establishment of a Latin American and Caribbean school of physical education and sports, so that these nations will have their own specialists to promote this noble and healthy activity in their own countries".
"We trust that they will be better doctors than their predecessors and professors who are presently giving them the scientific knowledge and expertise acquired in 40 years, both inside Cuba as well as in selfless and heroic services rendered to Third World countries in every continent. They will be doctors ready to work wherever they are needed, in the remotest corners of the world where others are not willing to go. Such are the doctors who will graduate from this School".
"There can be no highly developed education or medicine, or even well developed sports, without the support of science".
“The feats that our country is already capable of in the field of medicine, the enormous human capital it has developed: no other country in the world has these things. We have professionals willing to travel anywhere in the world, no matter how tough the conditions are there, and this is something no one else has.”
“Cuba has twice as many doctors per capita as all of the highest developed nations. No country has given, or is giving, more support to other peoples’ health care services, free of charge, than Cuba and no other has saved more lives. Thus, our people do not have, nor could it have, any inclination to become a bio-weapons producer.”
“Over the past seven years our battle for solidarity and for the training of doctors from Cuba and from other sister nations has been intense and ever-increasing. The means and the methodology have been incredibly revolutionized, and theoretical and practical training has considerably surpassed that which had traditionally prevailed throughout history. It would be more accurate to say that the traditional form of training has been improved several times over. ”
“Our youth always keeps alive the memory of those medical students and of all those students who fought against tyrannical and corrupt governments.”
"Never have we stolen the intelligences of other peoples. On the contrary; in Cuba we have trained tens of thousands of doctors and other top-level professionals, for free, in order to send them back to their own countries".
"The medical staff that is ready to go to any region to save lives, even at the risk of losing their own, is the best example of solidarity that human beings can offer, particularly if they are not moved by any material interest".