Cuba’s health system, which for decades was pointed to as the greatest and most untouchable achievement of the communist regime, is literally collapsing under the pressure of an unprecedented economic crisis. Shocking footage from inside a Cuban hospital were broadcast today in a report by Sky News Chief Correspondent Stuart Ramsay.
The media team was able to enter and film at the Arnaldo Milian Castro Regional Hospital in the city of Santa Clara. The title of the report – “No medicine, no power” – literally describes the reality that thousands of Cubans face every day.
The footage shows huge parts of the hospital facility plunged into total darkness. Due to the brutal power regime and constant breakdowns in the island’s power grid, doctors and patients are forced to move around and perform examinations in the dark. The only light in the corridors and rooms often comes from the screens and flashlights of staff’s personal mobile phones.
In the tropical heat, the lack of electricity also means the absence of any ventilation or air conditioning, turning hospital rooms into stifling and health-threatening spaces.
In front of the Sky News camera, medical workers and patients admit that the lack of basic supplies and medicines is absolute. The hospital does not have even the most basic painkillers and antibiotics. The situation has gotten to the point where if a person is about to have an operation or emergency treatment, their relatives have to find and bring everything completely themselves from the black market – from surgical sutures and syringes to clean sheets.
“Our health system is under such severe pressure that it is on the brink of total collapse,” said Stuart Ramsay from the scene.
The collapse of health care is the most severe symbolic blow to Havana. For many years, Cuba used its doctors as a tool for diplomacy and “medical exports” around the world. Today, however, the country’s mismanagement, hyperinflation and economic bankruptcy have left its own citizens without access to basic medical care. While the Cuban government continues to blame everything on the US economic embargo, critics and analysts point out that the country continues to invest millions in luxury hotels for foreigners, while hospitals for the local population wallow in misery and ruin.
The Sky News report is a rare and extremely valuable testimony to the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding in Cuba far from the eyes of tourists on the beaches of Varadero.
