Patients throughout the province are left without transport to receive treatment, while costs, pain and the risk of fatal complications increase.
14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, December 21, 2025 — The suspension of transport for haemodialysis patients in Holguín province has alarmed family members, patients and healthcare personnel, who describe the current situation as “unsustainable” and “cruel”. Several people affected have told 14ymedio that for two weeks, the transport service managed by the Public Health Department has been paralysed due to a lack of fuel. The measure particularly affects those who live outside the provincial capital and must travel long distances to receive treatment that cannot be delayed or interrupted.
Until the suspension was announced, state buses picked up patients in different municipalities and took them to hospitals in Holguín where the sessions are held: the Lucía Íñiguez Landín Surgical Clinic and the Vladimir Ilich Lenin University General Hospital. But with the buses stopped, transport is now left to the patients and their families. The result is devastating: trips that cost thousands of pesos, journeys lasting over two hours in private vehicles and very difficult situations for patients in a delicate condition, some of whom are recovering from dengue or chikungunya.
“For me it’s a matter of life and death, it’s not something I can put off or leave for another day,” a 30-year-old woman who has been receiving haemodialysis for 12 years told this newspaper. On Saturday, she travelled from Rafael Freyre to Holguín, paying for the journey out of her own pocket. “I have to come three times a week. The transport alone is impossible for me to afford,” she says. The journey from her municipality, in a car with minimal conditions for a patient who leaves treatment in pain, costs more than 3,000 pesos per day with a family member. “I have to come accompanied because I leave with practically no strength. It’s crazy,” she adds.
An electric tricycle to your doorstep inside the city is from 1,000 to 1,500 pesos a person.
Haemodialysis is an invasive, painful and exhausting process. It involves hours of connection to machines that replace kidney function and leave the patient in a state of extreme exhaustion. What’s more, many have other common conditions: diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic anaemia or infections. For those who live in the city of Holguín, the situation is not easy either.
Although the distances are shorter, an electric tricycle to your house door is from 1,000 to 1,500 pesos a person. If the patient needs three trips a week, the monthly expense is easily over 12,000 pesos for a single person, and more than 20,000 if you are with a companion.
“You feel completely abandoned,” says another patient who attends the Clínico, a centre that is treating fewer and fewer patients due to the deterioration of equipment at Lenin Hospital. “Many machines are broken, and those that work are practically never given a rest. So when there is also no transport, the whole process collapses.” In Holguín, it is estimated that over a hundred people need regular haemodialysis, according to calculations shared by patients’ relatives.
But fuel is not the only problem. The young woman from Rafael Freyre reports that medical supplies are also scarce and that “almost everything has to be bought outside.” “From needles to gauze and solutions, whatever we can’t find here we have to look for on Calle 13,” she says, referring to a street market in the city of Holguín where there are lots of informal medical supplies sellers.
Many machines are broken, and those that work are practically never given a break.
The most alarming detail concerns the use of haemodialysis needles: according to several reports collected by this newspaper, healthcare workers have had to reuse some needles up to five times per patient due to a lack of supplies. “This is dangerous because it can cause infections and is very painful because the needle is no longer in as good condition as it was the first time,” the woman explained. In a process as critical as haemodialysis, where any inadequate disinfection can lead to serious complications, this information is deeply worrying for patients and their families.
The crisis worsened during December, when hundreds of vehicles weren’t running due to a general fuel shortage in the region. People going to the municipal public health authorities are just told “there is no fuel at the moment” and that the service will restart “when possible”. According to patients, there is no specific date for when it will restart.
“Some people have had to suspend sessions because they have no way of travelling, and that can be fatal, it’s very dangerous,” warns a nursing technician who preferred not to give her name for fear of reprisals. Every session missed increases the risk of complications: poisoning of the body, heart failure, brain damage and even death. “This type of treatment cannot be interrupted, not even for a few days,” she explains.
“There are people selling furniture, clothes, phones, anything they can to pay for the car.”
In some municipalities, such as Mayarí and Banes, several family members are organising group trips in rented cars to share costs, but the financial burden remains enormous. “If it was difficult before, now it’s almost impossible,” summed up the son of a 64-year-old patient who requires three weekly sessions at the Lucía Íñiguez hospital. “My father leaves shaking after each haemodialysis session; he can’t go in just any car. It has to be decent transport that drops him off at home. And that costs money we don’t have.”
Although health authorities have not issued an official statement, medical sources confirmed to this newspaper that “alternatives are being sought” to transfer patients, without specifying when they might be available.
Meanwhile, families live in distress and debt. “There are people selling furniture, clothes, phones, anything they can to pay for the car,” says the young patient. “I don’t know how long people will be able to hold out.”
Translated by GH
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