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The basement located in front of the minimally accessible operating room of the Manuel Ascunce Domenech Provincial University Hospital in Camagüey is filled with stagnant water, garbage, rusty pipes, and walls covered in dampness and soot, as shown in images shared this Friday on his Facebook profile by independent journalist José Luis Tan Estrada.
The snapshots, accompanied by the hashtag #TanteandoCuba, reveal a massive accumulation of waste including bottles, cans, and plastics; stagnant water at the lower level, rotting wood, debris, and abandoned air conditioning units, all just a few meters from the operating room, "where lives are supposed to be saved," wrote Tan Estrada.
The reporter urged his followers to spread the material so that "what they don't want to show is seen."
This finding adds to a series of documented complaints regarding the same hospital. In November 2025, collapsed ceilings in the operating rooms forced surgeries to be suspended.
In October of that year, elderly individuals in the Geriatrics ward were found in unsanitary conditions and covered in excrement, while in August, the bathrooms displayed extreme dirtiness, stagnant urine, and destroyed toilets.
The situation at the hospital reflects a broader healthcare collapse in Camagüey. Recently, Tan Estrada documented brown and muddy water coming out of faucets in homes in the city.
Similarly, he reported that the source of the Casino Campestre is accumulating black water, mud, and larvae of Aedes aegypti, amid an active dengue epidemic in the province.
Cuba recorded 65 deaths and more than 81,900 cases of dengue and chikungunya in 2025, with confirmed active transmission in 14 provinces, including Camagüey, making any standing water a potential additional health risk.
The deterioration is not limited to the Agramontino territory. Recently, a complaint emerged regarding the situation in the Intensive Care Unit of the Contramaestre Hospital in Santiago de Cuba, where the bathrooms are overwhelmed with sewage and the floors have turned into mud pits.
In January, the Juan Bruno Zayas hospital, also located in Santiago territory, reported sewage running under the patients' beds.
The Cuban Minister of Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, acknowledged in February that the healthcare system is "on the brink of collapse" and warned that "it is not rhetoric to say that this situation could endanger lives."
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