UK Medical Students' Experience of Culture & Communication in Cuban Health Care.

Final-year medical students at UK universities are able to do elective placements elsewhere, to learn about other health care systems. We chose Cuba because of its excellent health outcomes despite relatively few resources. We were struck, for instance, when Cuba made global headlines in 2015 as the first country to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis. And, since the UK's underfunded National Health Service is experiencing high demand and increasing pressure, we sought to understand more about Cuba's socialist health system, where health care spending per capita is much lower than the UK's, but life expectancy is almost the same.