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Díaz-Canel says health care "allows no neglect" while admitting 90,000 are waiting for surgery
The president closed a Communist Party Central Committee visit to the Ministry of Public Health by calling health care "a central social achievement of the country." That same weekend the front of the hospital in Banes collapsed, an area cordoned off for months as a collapse risk.
Miguel Díaz-Canel said Cuban health care "is a central social achievement of the country and for that very reason allows no neglect," at the closing event of a Communist Party Central Committee visit to the Ministry of Public Health and several health institutions, according to the state media report carried by CiberCuba.
At the same event he admitted that more than 90,000 people are waiting for surgery on the island, that tens of thousands have trouble accessing radiotherapy, chemotherapy and dialysis, and that more than 34,000 pregnant women are not getting all the checkups they need. He attributed the situation to the United States "blockade."
Public Health Minister José Ángel Portal Miranda acknowledged at the same session the population's "legitimate dissatisfaction with the services we provide" and admitted shortages of medicines, disposable supplies, reagents and high-technology equipment, as well as breakdowns in elevators, boilers, generator sets, laundry equipment, water supply, cold rooms and medical transport, with recovery programs that "are not enough."
That same weekend the front structure of the Carlos Enrique Font Pupo clinical and surgical teaching hospital in Banes, Holguín, collapsed. There were no deaths or injuries: the section that fell was an outdoor waiting area for relatives, closed and cordoned off for about three months as a collapse risk, according to Martí Noticias; CiberCuba dates that closure to August 2026. In all that time there were no repairs, shoring or preventive maintenance.
Neither institutional channels nor the local newspaper Ahora reported the collapse, which began to circulate on social media through residents' accounts and reports by local journalists, Martí Noticias said. Journalist Flabio Gutiérrez stated publicly that the building has had defects since it opened in 2001, including water seepage.
Sources: CiberCuba · Martí Noticias
Data updated: 2026-11-03T04:15:00.000Z