Background: English for specific purposes is aimed at preparing the students in the professional field where they carry out their functions. To achieve this goal, the teacher of English must have a thorough knowledge of the subject matter. Objective: to characterize the substantive training of the teachers of English to teach English for medical purposes, at “Dr. Zoilo Enrique Marinello Vidaurreta” Faculty of Medical Sciences of the University of Medical Sciences of Las Tunas, in the academic year 2016-2017.Methods: a descriptive and prospective quanti-qualitative study was carried out. The population was made of the 26 permanent teachers of the English Department staff of the aforementioned institution and during the period herein declared. The data were processed by using descriptive statistics.Results: of all the teachers of the department staff, 7 belonged to the 25 to 34 age group (26,92 %), 6 graduated from higher education as teachers of English in the last 10 years (23,07 %) and 8 began to work at the medical university in the last 5 years (30,76 %), what characterized a part of the staff as fledgling. Only 13 teachers had taught English for medical purposes (50 %). Knowledge acquisition was mostly assessed as self-managed by 23 teachers (88,46 %). The study revealed a lack of planning of systematic activities of postgraduate training, reported by 22 teachers (84,61 %). 11 teachers considered, through self-perception, not to have the basic medical competence to carry out this function (42,30 %). Conclusions: the characterization of the English teachers was carried out, revealing that a significant number of them have not acquired the necessary knowledge to teach English for medical purposes.</p
