Patients undergoing hemodialysis in the municipality of Contramaestre, Santiago de Cuba, have gone days without receiving complete treatment at the Orlando Pantoja Tamayo Hospital, according to a report published this Thursday in the Facebook group Revolico Contramaestre by Ney Fernández.
According to the report, the situation worsened over three consecutive days. On Saturday, patients received only two hours of treatment, a duration the complainant deems insufficient for a standard session, which typically lasts around four hours. On Tuesday, they were called in as usual, but after hours of waiting, they returned without being seen; the explanation given to them, according to Fernández, was a lack of water and a turbine breakdown.
This Thursday, starting at six in the morning, patients of the first shift were once again waiting without receiving care. “Today's justification is a lack of fuel”, wrote Fernández, who questioned why solutions were promised that never come to fruition.
Due to the lack of response from the hospital, a patient went directly to the municipal government to meet with the president of the Municipal Assembly of the People's Power. According to the complaint, the official stated that she was unaware of what was happening and promised to seek alternatives, a promise that also did not result in treatment.
The photographs accompanying the publication show several people sitting in the corridor of the center, with no waiting room available. A user who said she was accompanying her sister-in-law described the situation with these words: “Everyone who passes sees us lying on the floor. It's all so sad.” Another commenter was more direct: “Not even a waiting room is guaranteed for them or their mandatory companions.”
A Cuban who claimed to be a dialysis patient confirmed, "It is very true, I am a patient who is going through this situation." Another person recalled that her son also depended on this treatment and warned, "A day without dialysis for them is fatal."
The complaint also questions a public statement made by the Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, who in February 2026 assured that hemodialysis was guaranteed and that no patient would lose the opportunity to continue this vital treatment. Just days later, the minister himself acknowledged to The Associated Press that the Cuban healthcare system was "on the brink of collapse".
"These patients received incomplete treatment, and on top of that, add the days without treatment, as they depend on this to survive," Fernández wrote at the end of his post, urgently calling for the situation to be resolved immediately.
In July 2026, patients at the Saturnino Lora Hospital in Santiago de Cuba reported sessions reduced to two hours due to a lack of essential concentrate. In June, patients at the Manuel Ascunce Domenech Hospital in Camagüey went almost a week without receiving hemodialysis due to a shortage of basic supplies. In Villa Clara, renal patients have been in a state of neglect for nine months.
The Orlando Pantoja Tamayo Hospital also has its own history of complaints: unsanitary conditions in the intensive care unit in April, pregnant women carrying buckets of water up the stairs in August, and flooded floors in the emergency room in September.
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