The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) published a series of images documenting the poor sanitary conditions of the Manuel Ascunce Domenech Provincial Hospital in Camagüey, raising concerns about hygiene issues, leaks, water accumulation, and the presence of rodents within the institution.
The photographs show floors with stagnant greenish water, hallways with ceilings lacking drywall and hanging cables, walls with severe moisture, exposed pipes, moss on the structures, and the Ambulatory Surgery Room with structural damage to the ceiling.
Meanwhile, independent journalist José Luis Tan Estrada shared a video about the conditions of the Minimally Invasive Surgery Room at the same hospital on his Facebook profile, a post that garnered more than 55,000 views.
"I continue to receive videos about the conditions of the minimally invasive surgery room at the Provincial Hospital of Camagüey," wrote Tan Estrada while sharing the images.
This is not the first time that this hospital center has been the subject of similar complaints. In April 2026, new images showed the basement in front of the minimally invasive operating room with stagnant water, garbage, rusty pipes, humidity, and soot.
In November 2025, collapsed ceilings in the operating rooms forced the suspension of surgeries, and in August of the same year, reports were made about extremely dirty bathrooms, stagnant urine, and destroyed toilets near the surgery room.
In October 2025, elderly individuals were reported in the Geriatrics ward without basic care or proper hygiene, covered in feces.
The most serious case occurred in February 2026, when a 26-year-old young man died due to a lack of norepinephrine, a medication that the hospital itself admitted it did not have available, causing shock throughout the country.
The hospital's response to the criticism on social media
In response to the wave of complaints, the official Facebook page of Hospital Universitario Manuel Ascunce Domenech posted a message directed at its staff that, rather than addressing the reported unsanitary conditions, chose to highlight the sacrifice of the workers and urged reflection before criticizing.
"You, doctors, nurses, technicians, stretcher bearers, messengers, and all that staff who manage to keep a hospital institution running; you who share the same hardships as millions of Cubans yet still provide care with love, professionalism, dedication, ethics, and consistency to every patient that arrives at our institution," reads the official text.
The publication, tagged with the hashtags #HospitalAscunceAvanza and #CubaPorLaSalud, implicitly acknowledged that the staff faces "blackouts, food shortages, water scarcity, transportation issues," but did not announce any corrective measures in response to the complaints about unsanitary conditions.
The message also included a warning directed at critics: "Criticism is easy, but take a moment to think before speaking", the institution noted on its official profile.
In May 2026, the OCDH recorded at least 61 complaints related to public health across the country, placing Camagüey among the provinces with the highest number of reported incidents, in the context of a structural crisis in the Cuban healthcare system exacerbated by decades of regime management.
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