La Dependiante, a hospital in Havana, has been without an elevator for more than a week
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 8 October 2024 — Until very recently, living near a hospital on the Island gave a little consolation: no matter how much the electricity deficit increased, it was unlikely to suffer a blackout. The Cuban Electric Union avoided turning off the circuits where the health centers are located on the Island.
However, the blackouts have also been affecting hospitals for days, the last stronghold that seemed to keep the lights on. Even those who have their own generators have run out of electricity since there is no fuel.
This is the case, for example, of the Diez de Octubre Clinical Surgical Teaching Hospital in Havana, known as La Dependiente. In front of the stopped elevator of the García Tuñón pavilion, a woman refused to go up the three flights of stairs to the pain clinic where she had an appointment this Tuesday. “What time do they turn on the electricity?” she asked desperately. “We don’t know,” the elevator operator replied. “Sometimes they take it away for five hours, sometimes six and sometimes eight, from what we understand.”
The patient was amazed: “How is it possible that they don’t have electricity in a hospital?” The employee encouraged her: “Be thankful that you weren’t locked inside. This morning I was stuck with an old man who couldn’t even move.”
“Sometimes they take [the electricity] away for five hours, sometimes six and sometimes eight, from what we understand”
Different patients, however, reported on social networks that the elevator has been broken for weeks, and that this has made them miss consultations and therapies. “It’s disrespectful, and I wonder where the bosses in charge are; it’s sad that no one cares about anything,” Elsa Alfonso said on Facebook in response to Nelson Ayala, a man who recently had an operation and complained about the same situation.
La Dependiente, an impoverished and precarious health center, located on Diez de Octubre Avenue, is not the only one that suffers power outages. The Calixto García hospital, in El Vedado, one of the most important in the capital, has also been affected by blackouts. Two weeks ago, journalist Ernesto Morales, a U.S. resident, released a video in which the dark corridors of the hospital were shown, illuminated only by the light of patients’ cellphones.
Complaints are also multiplying on social networks about the provincial clinics. A photo published on October 2 by the writer Ghabriel Pérez, from Holguín, showed the surroundings of the Lucía Íñiguez Landín Surgical Clinical Hospital in complete darkness, with no sign of light inside.
The hospital of the municipality of Vertientes in Camagüey was the same, as shown in photos released by José Luis Tan Estrada, on September 19. “Here, right now, there are patients in serious condition, with shortness of breath, and pregnant women, and the power just went out at 1:30 in the morning,” an eyewitness told the reporter.
The situation in Cuba was fully revealed this Monday, when the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, announced on social networks the start of the unloading of liquefied gas from a ship after it remained in port for several days, detained for lack of financing. Even more: the unloading would be partial, since the authorities did not have the full amount to pay for it.
On the other hand, oil is arriving in dribs and drabs. According to the latest Reuters report, Venezuela, the Island’s main supplier, sent 22,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) in September, much less than the 33,700 bpd of June and even the 28,000 bpd of April.
Although last Wednesday the PVT Clara tanker arrived at the port of Havana, loaded with Russian fuel from Kaliningrad, and the previous Friday, the Ocean Mariner with Mexican oil arrived in Nuevitas, it does not seem to be enough. Cubans cannot escape from power cuts even in the operating room.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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