Is Healthcare in Cuba Free?

By Kamil Kenders

HAVANA TIMES – “Healthcare in Cuba is free, but it costs.” It’s a slogan coined by Public Health that I’ve heard since I was a child, and it refers to the fact that every examination carried out by the State costs a lot of money. It’s true, as is the significant collaboration of other countries with ours in terms of health. And by this, I mean equipment and hospital instruments. However, for some years now, the situation in our medical institutions has been worsening.

I’ve always been a person with health problems, especially when I was young, and I fondly remember all the healthcare personnel who attended to me during those years. Kind, polite, and with a great sense of humanitarianism, something that many of these white-coated workers lack nowadays, at least on this island where, unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer of them.

The story of this post begins just over 15 days ago when a friend’s grandmother, 85 years old, fell in the street and fractured her hip. She was immediately taken to the nearest hospital, Carlos J. Finlay Hospital (a military hospital) located in the municipality of Marianao.

When the X-ray was performed (an examination that was useless to diagnose due to its poor quality, but the clinical examination could), the orthopedic doctor on duty explained that it was impossible to admit her to that institution simply because it was a military hospital, and she was neither military personnel nor a relative of one. With that said, she was referred to the hospital to which she belonged: The Joaquin Albarran Clinical Surgical Hospital. The usual or normal procedure would have been to transport her by ambulance, but no, this transfer is now the responsibility of the patient and their family.

So, after hiring a taxi, it was possible to transport her. Once in the second hospital, another X-ray was performed, which was able to show the poor woman’s hip fracture, who could only complain of her pain without being administered any painkillers. In that hospital not only was there no bed available for her to be admitted, but the orthopedic doctor explained that the operating rooms had been closed for “repairs” for almost a year.

After the family’s despair, not knowing what to do with an elderly person in such conditions, a member of the family present remembered a friend, a doctor from another hospital, whom they called without hesitation, praying that she could alleviate the situation a little. And she did.

The lady is now admitted to the Fructuoso Rodríguez Orthopedic Hospital, awaiting her operation, which has not yet been performed due to problems with electricity, water scarcity, and a lack of medical supplies. And that’s when I remembered that phrase again, “healthcare in Cuba is free, but it costs”; and yes, it costs pain, tears, sacrifice, and money. Nevertheless, the fact of being able to be hospitalized and awaiting a solution to her ailment is infinitely appreciated.

Read more from the diary of Kamil Kenders here on Havana Times.