A Cuban doctor identified on social media as Maria Magdalena Lasacerdotisa published a video on Facebook in which she publicly announces that she refuses to continue providing the so-called "charge sheets" at her clinic, because she has to buy them out of her own pocket along with the necessary pens to fill them out.
The recording, nearly six minutes long, garnered close to 59,000 views, nearly 3,000 likes, and over 500 comments within a few days, along with a wave of supportive responses from Cubans both on and off the island who completely resonated with its message.
"I am not going to give another charge sheet; it's not rebellion, it's simply coherence," asserts the doctor, a specialist in Comprehensive General Medicine (MGI), with a calm demeanor that contrasts with the seriousness of what she describes.
She explained that the clinic's statistics office called her eight days into the month to request the forms she had not submitted, and her decision stems from a basic logic: the State does not provide her with either paper or pens, while her salary—which had not yet been credited to her account at the time of the recording—does not cover those expenses.
"I buy the paper, I buy the pens; when I don't, my patient buys them for me as a gift. I am not going to keep paying to work in this country, because yes, that's what we're doing—paying for our work," he says.
During the video, he recounts that he went out to buy a coffee and it cost 1,000 Cuban pesos, and that two blocks away from his workplace there is a dumpster over six meters long where people search for food.
"How much longer will public health continue to hover around mediocrity, stupidity, and ignorance? How much longer will we keep turning into paper?" she asks.
The doctor also directly challenges the system with a question that resonated among her followers: "In what country in the world do you pay to work? Slavery is here, fear is still here," she says, touching her temple.
The salary context you describe is verifiable: in 2026, a Cuban doctor earns between 5,060 and 8,000 pesos per month, equivalent to between 10 and 16 dollars at the informal exchange rate, while the basic basket for two people in Havana exceeds 41,000 pesos per month.
Reactions overflowed on social media. Dozens of doctors and health sector workers confirmed in the comments that they have been buying their own sheets and pens for years. "I have been a specialist in comprehensive general medicine for 20 years and we have always paid to work, now even more. I support this," wrote one of them. Another user summed up the situation with a phrase that garnered numerous responses: "And it’s the only country in the world... where you have to struggle... to work."
Several commentators also noted that the charge sheets are used to "inflate" health statistics that do not reflect reality, and that doctors are pressured to fabricate data in them.
According to the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Press, the doctor was also reportedly a victim of workplace harassment and intimidation for refusing to sign the government campaign "My Signature for the Homeland," which adds a dimension of political retaliation to her case.
In a second video that also surpassed 56,000 views, the doctor rejected calls for military intervention and made her position clear: "What Cubans ask for is freedom, Cubans ask for dignity as a being, Cubans ask for the basic necessities of every human being in the world: light, water, food, the ability to fulfill themselves, the ability to express themselves freely, to exist."
This is not the first time that a Cuban doctor leaves her profession or speaks out about unsustainable working conditions, but the reach of her videos and the intensity of the reactions reflect a frustration that can no longer be contained in silence.
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