14ymedio, Havana, 31 January 2024 — With truck engine casings and tire valves, a Las Tunas ponchero (tire repairer) manufactures and repairs blood pressure monitors. Given the lack of resources and the impossibility of replacing equipment, the hospitals of the province have begun to order the material from Arturo Batista, and now they give him materials so that he can produce more.
Interviewed by the State newspaper Periódico 26, Batista remembers the first time someone asked him to replace the latex in a blood pressure monitor. “That was in 2004, and I did it based on my experience as a ponchero, and it worked and is still working after all this time.”
The story of the ponchero drew attention on social networks, and some users questioned whether the material intended for vehicle parts should be allowed in instruments for measuring blood pressure. “I am concerned about the rigidity of the bands used in this work. I am referring to the material and its thickness; let’s remember that it will be inflated by doctors with their hand, not with a bicycle pump,” warned a user on Facebook.
We are also talking with self-employed workers who make plastic parts, to guarantee the equipment valves, a very deficient part that would be much better than the metal ones
However, anticipating the reluctance of the patients, Alberto Charles Martínez, director of the Provincial Center of Electromedicine of Las Tunas, told Periódico 26 that “the bands made by Arturo comply with the quality parameters, and we are now managing the delivery of thinner rubber bands so that he can continue his work.”
“We are also talking with self-employed workers who make plastic parts, to guarantee the equipment valves, a very deficient part that would be much better than the metal ones. The monitors would thus be more practical and of higher quality,” Charles added.
What the press has avoided mentioning at all costs is the payment given to Batista for each of the bands he manufactures when “he needs help,” because he makes them with few resources and pays high prices for the tire casings and the valves. “If I am helped with the thin truck casings and the valves, I can make them quickly, as they’re needed,” he said.
According to the newspaper, “at the moment (Batista) already has made more than 50 that are used in the municipality of Las Tunas, and he has more than 50 orders, since the entire province demands the equipment.” The report added that Batista is waiting for more valves in order to complete the more than 150 blood pressure gauges required by the Ernesto Che Guevara hospital.
The official press doesn’t wonder why the State is not investing anything in this much-needed equipment
Since last December, the man has delivered another hundred monitors to Public Health, most of them destined for the polyclinic Guillermo Tejas, which has “saved” foreign currency for the country. The official press does not wonder why the State is not investing anything in this much-needed equipment.
Last September, another similar story was published in Periódico 26, that of Dr. Pedro Oliva, who has been manufacturing orthopedic prostheses in Las Tunas for years using the plastic of buckets and plumbing tubes. The lack of professional equipment in hospitals, which lengthens orthopedic waiting times for months and even years, was his motivation to start manufacturing them himself.
During the worst moments of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Island, the stories of people who manufactured plastic connectors so that more than one patient could be assisted with a single oxygen cylinder also became famous.
The crisis of supplies, equipment and personnel in Cuban hospitals is increasingly worrying, to the point that the Island’s own doctors sent to “missions” in poor countries of Africa have begun to send donations of syringes, gauze, gloves and all kinds of disposable material that, despite their low cost, are not frequently purchased by the Cuban Government.
Aid from countries such as Japan, Spain, Italy and several organizations such as the United Nations and UNICEF, has also been a lifeline for the destitute Cuban health system.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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