Decades ago, Cuban healthcare ceased to be as the Government of the Revolution and the Communist Party paint it. Added to the serious material deficiencies and the shortage of medicines is a drastic reduction in health personnel as a result of their employment as a primary source of obtaining foreign currency through the export of medical services to other countries. The truth is that, within the island, the hardships in the sector often reach dramatic proportions.
The death of eight babies in the Diez de Octubre maternity and child hospital in Havana so far in January has once again revealed, in the most cruel way, the precariousness of the system in a large part of the country's health centers.
The Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) reported the "unfortunate" events last Wednesday. He did so emphasizing that they were "eight newborns with low birth weight", but added that four of them had died as of January 11, that is, in just one week, "with presumptive signs of sepsis", that is, that is, by generalized infection. The other babies, MINSAP said, died "due to other causes related to their delicate state of health."
The ministry implicitly admitted that something serious went wrong in the care of the little ones. In its official note, the department indicated that "measures have been taken to address this situation and ensure that the necessary resources are available to care for newborns." A special commission "investigates" what happened, the entity also pointed out. And he added that, depending on the results of the investigations, "the pertinent measures will be applied."
Cuban health is a huge paradox since the fall of the USSR and the consequent end of the massive subsidies to the island caused a crisis from which the country has not recovered. The rate of doctors, about 90 per 10,000 inhabitants, is among the highest in the world. But, since half of them and the rest of the health personnel are fulfilling some "internationalist mission" of the kind that supply the national coffers with foreign currency and oil, few are the Cubans who have not seen the availability and quality of their optional services deteriorate. in clinics and hospitals.
The Government admits "the deficit of medicines and equipment" in its health system. But he usually attributes the shortcomings to the US blockade. It does not matter that a large part of these medicines and supplies come from China or that the island itself has developed the manufacture of often very advanced drugs. Infrastructure problems that make it impossible to maintain and expand these productions, as well as widespread smuggling and theft in all areas of manufacturing and distribution, put an end to such developments.
The death of the babies of Diez de Octubre brings to the memory of the islanders the death of 26 patients at the Psychiatric Hospital of Havana, due to hunger and cold, in January 2010, events that the regime settled with the sentence of the 14 directors and department heads of the center to sentences of between 15 and 5 years in prison.
