The incident caused no casualties, but once again highlights the maintenance problems at medical centers
14ymedio, Havana, November 2, 2026 / Part of the front structure of the Carlos Enrique Font Pupo Clinical-Surgical Teaching Hospital in Banes, in Holguín province, collapsed on Sunday afternoon. The report of the incident came not from the public but from an official journalist, who thanked “God that there was no loss of human life to mourn.”
The collapse occurred in an outdoor area where “relatives and companions almost always wait,” according to Flabio Gutiérrez, who has been a contributor for seven years to the provincial newspaper Ahora, which, so far, has not reported the incident.
In his message, the journalist noted that “this hospital has been giving people something to talk about since it was founded. It’s not possible that just a few days after its inauguration (in 2001) it already had leaks. Its comfort was always highly questioned, as was its service.” The images he shared along with his text show a large section of collapsed roof just a few meters from an entrance door to the hospital.
“I thought it wasn’t true, but I went by there a few hours ago. Incredible, a relatively new hospital, substantial resources, and a lot of propaganda. There’s the result, and silence as the response,” a user replied to the journalist’s report.
“Incredible, a relatively new hospital, substantial resources, and a lot of propaganda. There’s the result, and silence as the response”
According to other testimonies posted on social media, that entrance had been closed months earlier because of the risk of collapse. “About three months ago, that part was shut down because of a possible collapse, leaving that entrance closed, and the hospital lobby entrance was opened instead, which patients and workers have used ever since,” another user indicated. However, there is no record of whether any repair work was carried out during that period or whether there was any plan to restore the structure.
The collapse in Banes is not an isolated event and adds to several episodes that have revealed infrastructure problems in the country’s health centers in recent years. The previous recorded case occurred last May at the Manuel Fajardo Hospital in Havana. In a Facebook post, pro-government journalist Lázaro Manuel Alonso reported that there had been a fire in a low-activity area of the institution. That circumstance made it easier to contain and quickly extinguish. Even so, both medical staff and patients had to be evacuated.
A month earlier, a fire broke out at the Gustavo Aldereguía Lima Provincial Hospital in Cienfuegos. The incident forced the evacuation of patients, companions, and health staff from several key areas of the medical facility, with no injuries reported.
Days before that, another fire was reported at the Saturnino Lora Torres Provincial Clinical-Surgical Teaching Hospital, the most important hospital in Santiago de Cuba. A nurse confirmed to CiberCuba that the incident occurred in the intermediate care ward, where there were patients from that unit as well as from intensive care, the latter affected by leaks coming from the floor above.
Another fire was reported at the Saturnino Lora Torres Provincial Clinical-Surgical Teaching Hospital, the most important hospital in Santiago de Cuba
Before that, in June 2023, part of the ceiling came down at the Calixto García Hospital in Havana, forcing patients to be moved. “Today is the second time that pieces of the ceiling have fallen in the post-operative room at Calixto García in Havana. Tiles from the false ceiling fell. The first time was three weeks ago, when some debris fell on top of a doctor and a patient,” an internet user identified as Diarmuid wrote on X at the time.
That same year in Camagüey, the floor of the Ophthalmology Center at the Manuel Ascunce Domenech University Hospital suddenly buckled. It was the institution itself that reported that the event “caused a loud crash, frightening the patients who were attending outpatient appointments. One woman was injured as a result of the incident, caused by people rushing out.”
In that same province, the José Martí polyclinic, located in the center of the city of Camagüey, had closed its doors months earlier due to the imminent danger of collapse. As a result, all its services had to be transferred to other centers.
While health centers suffer these incidents due to lack of investment and neglect, in the political sphere they boast that “health is a central social achievement of the country and for that very reason admits no neglect; it is the sector where the population is most demanding and where any failure is immediately felt in family life,” Miguel Díaz-Canel said this Sunday during a report on various visits authorities made to health sector institutions.
“Health in our country is a fundamental human right, an achievement of the revolution, and not a commodity or a privilege”
The president stressed that “health in our country is a fundamental human right, an achievement of the revolution, and not a commodity or a privilege.”
However, Díaz-Canel’s message comes in a context in which the National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei) itself admitted last May that Cuba lacks 91.5% of medicines and medical supplies.
The shortage was already evident as far back as December 2021, when it was reported at 50%. From then on, the situation worsened by leaps and bounds. In March 2022 the rate rose to 56.6%, in August 2023 it was already at 66%, and in September 2024 it reached 85%. Barely two months later (November 2024) it hit an unprecedented peak of 90.9%, but in 2025 it was held in check.
Translated by GH.
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