Cuba's health system collapses as power outages exacerbate equipment shortages

Cuba’s public health system, once hailed as a model, is now facing severe shortages of functional equipment, medicines and staff. In Havana’s Institute of Oncology, 64‑year‑old Rosa Valentina Pérez has been waiting for a scanner for weeks, while only one working device remains in the entire capital’s neurology services. Director Luis Eduardo Martin says about 80 % of diagnostic and treatment machines are obsolete or broken, forcing doctors to improvise with basic tools. Children with cancer see survival rates fall from 85 % to 65 % as routine blood tests are missed, and dialysis patients share a limited number of malfunctioning machines, cutting treatment time in half.

The crisis is deepened by repeated nationwide electricity blackouts – the fourth major cut in six months and the ninth since late 2024 – leaving hospitals without power for critical procedures. Staff are over‑worked, many leave for better‑paid jobs, and engineers work nights to keep the single linear accelerator running. Sanctions, fuel shortages and under‑investment after the COVID‑19 pandemic have compounded the collapse.

Patients describe the anguish: “You cannot imagine what it is to have this pain, to know your life is shrinking and we are told ‘we’ll see when it’s possible’,” says Pérez. The combined impact threatens the lives of thousands awaiting radiotherapy, cardiac implants and dialysis across Cuba.