A video shared on Facebook this Thursday by independent journalist José Luis Tan Estrada shows a newborn lying on blankets placed on an old chair in the Provincial University Gyneco-Obstetric Hospital Ana Betancourt de Mora in Camagüey. According to the journalist's report, the situation is due to a lack of available beds in the delivery room.
“Look at this! Newborns lying on old chairs and dirty rags in the delivery room of the Camagüey Maternal Hospital, because there are no available beds for them,” wrote Tan Estrada when posting the images under the hashtag #TanteandoCuba, which garnered over 47,000 views in just a few hours.
The complaint is not an isolated incident, but the most recent episode in a series of documented irregularities at that center throughout 2026.
In April, Tan Estrada had already reported that pregnant women in Ward A were waiting in the hallways on worn-out mattresses, without privacy or adequate ventilation.
In May, a photograph showed electric motorcycles parked inside the perinatal care unit, an area that requires strict hygiene conditions.
That same month, Tan Estrada reported that more than 15 babies had died in the hospital between January and May, linking those deaths to alleged negligence and serious health deficiencies. He also reported leaks of wastewater coming from a bathroom on the upper floor that were affecting the neonatal area.
In June, a mother reported that her baby suffered from pulmonary, gastric, and cerebral hemorrhages, cardiac arrests, kidney damage, and seizures for four days before dying, in a hard testimony about the conditions of the hospital.
The deterioration is not limited to the maternity hospital. The Manuel Ascunce Domenech Provincial Hospital, also in Camagüey, has reports of overflowing toilets, bedbugs in patient beds, and moldy walls.
The management of that center acknowledged on Wednesday the physical deterioration of the building, although they appealed to the "morality" of their workers as a response.
The report is set within a health crisis that has been warned about by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). According to data from the Ministry of Public Health previously collected by CiberCuba, infant mortality in the island increased from 4.0 per 1,000 live births in 2018 to 9.9 in 2025, an increase of approximately 148%.
The Pan American Health Organization estimated that over 33,000 pregnant women have limited access to ultrasounds and fetal monitoring due to equipment failures and prolonged blackouts, while the Minister of Public Health himself acknowledged in July 2025 that the system was functioning with only 30% of the essential medicine supply.
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