Jamaica has brought 157 Cuban medical professionals back into its public health system under individual employment contracts, marking a shift from the government to government arrangements that previously governed the deployment of Cuban medical brigades across the island.

Health Minister Chris Tufton said this week that the returning personnel, comprising doctors, nurses and other specialists, would help address staffing needs and strengthen healthcare delivery. More than 40 Cuban professionals who remained in Jamaica after the previous arrangement ended earlier this year have also continued working in the country.

The former Cuban medical brigade comprised 278 members.

Tufton said all Cuban personnel previously employed in Jamaica had been offered individual contracts and were required to decide whether they wished to return under the revised terms.

“So, we are close to where we were, and they have been appropriately deployed,” the minister said, expressing gratitude to those who had accepted the new arrangements.

He added that Jamaica remained willing to recruit former workers who had returned to Cuba, provided they agreed to individual employment contracts.

“We’d be willing to re-engage them based on their own interests, but on the basis of individual contracts,” he said, noting that some former personnel had already expressed interest in returning.

The changes come amid sustained pressure from the Trump administration on Caribbean governments to stop payments to Havana for supplying medical brigades. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has characterised the longstanding arrangement as a form of human trafficking, arguing that participating countries should negotiate directly with individual healthcare workers. He has also called for the programme to end.

Under the previous system, the Cuban government reportedly paid workers only about 20% of their monthly salary packages.

Meanwhile, Jamaica intends to broaden international recruitment as part of its plans to improve the health sector by 2030.

Tufton said the government expected as many as 400 Ghanaian medical personnel to arrive in the coming months, while recruitment efforts would also target Nigeria.

The Nigerian initiative builds on existing cooperation, including the deployment of four specialised nursing educators through the Nigerian Technical Aid Corps programme. Those educators continue to support specialist training and public health services, the minister said.

The US campaign to change the Cuban medical cooperation system has prompted similar adjustments in several Caribbean countries, including The Bahamas, Guyana and Jamaica, reshaping how foreign healthcare professionals are recruited and compensated across the region.

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