I saw biological waste discarded in a regular trash can. The beds had no linen, and the only equipment around was the bag of IV fluids hanging above them. (File)
As Cuba has become an issue in the U.S. Presidential election, we have thought it useful to republish the PanAm Posts own research on Cubas healthcare system:
By the time I climbed the steps of the emergency room entrance in San Miguel, Havana, I could already tell that the supposed first-classhealth care provided in Cuba was a myth. Hospitals in the islands capital areliterally falling apart.
Friends told me to dress like a Cuban and not to speak while inside, since my Argentinean accent would give meaway the moment I said hello. A member of the opposition Cuban Patriotic Union (UNPACU) party came along to guide me in my journey to the core of communist-style medicine.
We entered the hospital at 10 p.m. on an ordinary Saturday night in September. Three out of the hospitals four stories were closed. Only the ER was operational.
We have been waiting for an ambulance for four hours, yelleda man wearing green scrubs, who seemed to be a doctor. I sat on one of the four plastic chairs in the waiting area. My friend kept stilland gestured to let me know I should remain silent and listen to the patients and theirrelatives.
Twenty minutes went by,and still no ambulance. The man in green scrubsremained at his mothers side on an improvised stretcher, trying not to lose hispatience. They looked like characters from the play Waiting for Godot.
The scarce equipment available gave the building the appearance of a makeshift medicalcamp, rather than a hospital in the nations capital.
I stood up and continued my tour.Two nurses stared at us but didnt say a word as we entered an intensive-care unit, where the facilitys air-conditioned area began.
My guide a taxi driver for tourists who dont get to see this part of town told me that all the doctors working the night shift are still inschool. Indeed, none of them appeared to be older than25.
The only working bathroom in the entire hospital had only one toilet. The door didnt close, so you had to go with people outside watching. Toilet paper was nowhere to be found, and the floor was far from clean.
I saw biological waste discarded in a regular trash can. The beds had no linen, and the only equipment around was the bag of IV fluids hanging above them. All doctors offices had handwritten signs on the doors, and at least four patients waited outside each room. The average wait time for each was around three hours.
Orderlies were also nowhere to be seen. A young man had to push his mother on a stretcher until he reached the line of those waiting for anambulance.[adrotate group=8]I leftthe hospital after a couple hours. Once outside, puzzled by the large bags the people entering the hospital were carrying, I asked my friend to explain.
Well, theyhave to bring everything with them, because the hospital provides nothing. Pillows, sheets, medicine: everything, he said.
Cubas Public Health Ministry runs all hospitals in the country and is in charge of centrally dictating public-health policies. The socialized medical system, delivered at no charge to Cuban patients, is akeypropaganda tool of the Castro regime.
Since the triumph of the Revolution, making sure that Cubans have free health care has become a fundamental social cornerstone,Granma, the Communist Partys official media outlet, boasts in an article. This is in linewith thehumanism and social justice of our revolutionary process.
Socialists and progressives outside of Cuba have also been known to gush over the islands state-run health-care system.
In 2007, filmmaker Michael Moore released a documentary that featured US citizens who traveled to Cuba to get free medical treatment. Moore claimed they received services comparable to what ordinary Cuban citizens would have received.
The Cuban people have free universal health care. Theyve become known as having not only one of the best health-care systems, but as being one of the most generous countries in providing doctors and medical equipment to third-world countries, Mooresays inSicko.
Yilian Jimnez Expsito, general director of Cuban Medical Services, toldGranma in an interviewthat the secret lies in the medicaltraining under a socialist system, where doctors do not view the patientas merchandise or acustomer; where every citizen has aright to health care from birth to the grave,without discrimination.
However, Hilda Molina, a Cuban neurosurgeon who turned against Castro, explained in an interview with El Cato that the whole sector is under tight government control, which shuts downs private alternatives or independent organizations.
These arbitrary measures, aside frommany othernegative consequences, had a terrible impact, ethically: the sacreddoctor-patient relationship was replaced with animpersonal government-patient dynamic. When patientsare forced to seekcare from government-sanctioned doctors and facilities, they suffer distress, whether consciously or unconsciously, immersed in a deep sensation of insecurity, she said.
The regime has neither provided Cubans with equality nor fairness in health care. The ruling elite, theirrelatives and friends,get better service than the rest, Molina lamented.
See the rest here:
Inside the Cuban Hospitals That Castro (and Bernie) Doesn't Want Tourists to See - PanAm Post
- "NBC Nightly News" - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- Writer Rhiannon - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- Katherine Hayles, How We Became Posthuman, prologue - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- Posthumanism, Transhumanism, Antihumanism, Metahumanism ... - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- Thoughts on Posthumanism | Larval Subjects . - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- Transhumanism | Posthumanism | Future For All - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- Posthuman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- Posthumanism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- Posthumanism - February 15th, 2015 [February 15th, 2015]
- Predictions: Who should, will win at 87th Academy Awards - February 21st, 2015 [February 21st, 2015]
- Waking up and smelling the roasted coffee - February 26th, 2015 [February 26th, 2015]
- US-Bangladeshi blogger Avijit Roy killed - February 27th, 2015 [February 27th, 2015]
- Atheist blogger killed in Bangladesh - February 27th, 2015 [February 27th, 2015]
- Leonard Nimoy Showed Us What It Truly Means To Be Human - February 27th, 2015 [February 27th, 2015]
- U.S. blogger hacked to death - February 27th, 2015 [February 27th, 2015]
- The Joy of the Gospel Fills the Heart and Life - February 27th, 2015 [February 27th, 2015]
- WorldViews: Why an American blogger was hacked to death in Bangladesh - February 27th, 2015 [February 27th, 2015]
- Opinion: Roy died for speaking his mind - February 27th, 2015 [February 27th, 2015]
- Terrorists murder American blogger - February 28th, 2015 [February 28th, 2015]
- 'Nobody came to save him,' witness says - February 28th, 2015 [February 28th, 2015]
- American religion critic killed, wife wounded in Bangladesh - February 28th, 2015 [February 28th, 2015]
- U.S. writer hacked to death in Bangladesh - February 28th, 2015 [February 28th, 2015]
- 53 & Grateful - February 28th, 2015 [February 28th, 2015]
- 'Apocalyptic ideology' to blame? - February 28th, 2015 [February 28th, 2015]
- Killed blogger defied Bangladesh threats - March 2nd, 2015 [March 2nd, 2015]
- Avijit Roy received death threats prior to visit - March 2nd, 2015 [March 2nd, 2015]
- American writer hacked to death in Bangladesh - March 2nd, 2015 [March 2nd, 2015]
- Time to face facts over extremism - March 2nd, 2015 [March 2nd, 2015]
- feed - Video - March 5th, 2015 [March 5th, 2015]
- As it happened: Chat with Kalpana Sharma, Subhalakshmi Nandi - March 8th, 2015 [March 8th, 2015]
- In the Memory Ward - March 9th, 2015 [March 9th, 2015]
- U.S. blogger critical of Muslim extremists fatally stabbed in Bangladesh - March 9th, 2015 [March 9th, 2015]
- U.S. atheist blogger killed in stabbing attack in Bangladesh - March 9th, 2015 [March 9th, 2015]
- Tabling of hudud bill threatening to tear PR apart - March 16th, 2015 [March 16th, 2015]
- "The Winter Boy" by Sally Wiener Grotta Nominated for the Prestigious Locus Award - March 18th, 2015 [March 18th, 2015]
- REVIEW: The scars of war - Magazine - DAWN.COM - March 22nd, 2015 [March 22nd, 2015]
- Indonesians treated to Sufi, Punjabi folk music - March 25th, 2015 [March 25th, 2015]
- Blogger hacked to death in Bangladesh - Newspaper - DAWN.COM - March 31st, 2015 [March 31st, 2015]
- Louise Palanker: Why Are Boys Ignorant About Feminism, the Need to Text, Sister Fights - April 5th, 2015 [April 5th, 2015]
- Text of Narendra Modis address to UNESCO - April 11th, 2015 [April 11th, 2015]
- PM@UNESCO: Our world is a better place because of UN - April 11th, 2015 [April 11th, 2015]
- Walking for a cause - April 11th, 2015 [April 11th, 2015]
- Thomas Jeffersons torturous afterlife: How Ronald Reagan and the Tea Party try to steal his legacy - April 13th, 2015 [April 13th, 2015]
- Heidegger, Martin - May 16th, 2015 [May 16th, 2015]
- Lhyperhumanisme contre le posthumanisme : article - Revue ... - December 8th, 2016 [December 8th, 2016]
- Posthumanismus Wikipedia - December 8th, 2016 [December 8th, 2016]
- Home : Rice University Department of English - January 20th, 2017 [January 20th, 2017]
- Trump's Wall Will Fail in the Era of Post-Humanism - Inverse - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- The Fairly Traded Coffee Party - Patheos (blog) - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- James Ibori inspired David Cameron's comment of Nigeria being 'fantastically corrupt' CACOL - Daily Post Nigeria - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Oscar-Nominated Shorts: Unsung but Worth Your Time - New York Times - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- Thinging the Real: On Bill Brown's Other Things - lareviewofbooks - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- The Sanders-Cruz Debate Humane Health Care Or Free Market Fundamentalism? - Huffington Post - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- The Tate dives into the art of David Hockney - The Economist (blog) - February 14th, 2017 [February 14th, 2017]
- Japanese manga artist Jiro passes away - The Kathmandu Post - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Announcing My New Book - Patheos (blog) - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Calls for contributions to books and special issues of ... - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- Open letter to Shehla Rashid, from former AMU Students Union leader - DailyO - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- Interview with Scott Blair - Conatus News - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- Freedom & Islam 'not compatible,' says far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders - RT - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Humans in Dark Times - New York Times - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- American society headed toward a breaking point - Jerusalem Post Israel News - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Talk utilizes postmodern approaches to explore images of the medieval body - NIU Today - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Sophia Al Maria: EVERYTHING MUST GO at The Third Line - Arte Fuse - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- 'Moonlight,' 'La La Land' and What an Epic Oscars Fail Really Says - New York Times - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Manifestly Haraway - Brooklyn Rail - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- Can Universities Save the Enlightenment from Populism? - Huffington Post - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- Lecturer for Cindy Wool seminar supports 'slow medicine' - Jewish Post - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- Post-Truth Trump And Why Humanism Is The Answer To Anti-Facts - Huffington Post - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- Acknowledgment is Not Enough: Coming to Terms With Lovecraft's Horrors - lareviewofbooks - March 4th, 2017 [March 4th, 2017]
- Making Humanism Happen in Nigeria: A labour of Love - Conatus News - March 6th, 2017 [March 6th, 2017]
- The Newfound Lionization Of George W. Bush Shows How Far We've Fallen - Huffington Post - March 7th, 2017 [March 7th, 2017]
- Grapevine: Shimon Peres Day in the Big Apple - Jerusalem Post Israel News - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- The Victim Of Populism Is Democracy - Huffington Post - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- In a robot showdown, humanity may happily surrender - Washington Post - March 10th, 2017 [March 10th, 2017]
- Noted secularist Zuckerman to speak here Monday - Ashland Daily Tidings - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- 'Can we all get along?' Apparently not - Miami Herald (blog) - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- Book World: In a robot showdown, humanity may happily surrender - Prince George Citizen - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- What if the problem is simply liberals and conservatives just don't like each other? - Fort Worth Star Telegram - March 12th, 2017 [March 12th, 2017]
- Godless flocks grow, attract like-minded - NWAOnline - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]