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The U.S. network NBC News gained access for the first time in over a decade to a hospital in Cuba, during a government-approved visit under the regime's control that still exposed the deficiencies of the healthcare system on the Island.
The report focused on the Institute of Hematology and Immunology in Havana, one of the best-equipped facilities in the country, where patients and medical staff described the challenges of maintaining care amid power outages, fuel shortages, and a lack of medications.
Yonelkys García, a 44-year-old patient with acute myeloid leukemia, reported that her treatment has been affected by shortages.
"Sometimes the institute doesn't have many medications, and I have to call friends and family in other countries to have them send them to me," he stated.
The hematologist Martin Hernández Isas explained that even the staff faces significant obstacles in fulfilling their duties.
According to what was shared, they have to walk long distances to reach the hospital, and due to a lack of resources, the doctors reuse small amounts of medication.
"With 1 ml that a patient doesn't use and 2 ml from another, we combine them so that no one goes without treatment," she noted.
For her part, Lucelia Leyva Calderón, the center's deputy director, acknowledged that patients often rely on external assistance or the informal market.
"We have to rely on family members to send them medication or buy it on the black market," he indicated.
The impact of the blackouts was also highlighted by healthcare personnel.
Nurse Norma Fernández explained that power outages can last between one and eight hours, which compromises the preservation of medications.
"If it's for one hour, they can stay cold, but if it's eight, it's already difficult," he warned.
The report also revealed that laboratories have had to reduce their operations from five days to just two per week to save fuel, while many patients are facing difficulties in getting around due to the high cost of transportation.
Although the hospital visited is one of the best equipped in the country, the workers themselves admitted that the situation in other institutions could be even more critical.
The access granted to NBC, which is rare in Cuba, revealed that even under conditions controlled by the authorities, it is difficult to hide the deterioration of the healthcare system amid the crisis the country is experiencing—a collapse largely attributable to the regime and its failed policies over the past decades.
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