Without notice and without explanations, they close the La Fátima gynecobstetric hospital in Guanabacoa

Havana/“We are completely closed,” says one of the nurses sitting at the side entrance of the La Fátima Gynecobstetric Hospital, in Guanabacoa, the only one of its kind in the east of Havana. Since they decided to close the center in mid-November, the nurses and custodians take turns taking care of the facility and the few pieces of equipment that still remain inside.

“The provincial director is reorganizing hospital services. They also closed the Línea maternity hospital (América Arias) in September, and now it only works for assisted reproduction and gynecological surgery,” a 68-year-old retired doctor who prefers to remain anonymous and who worked the last ten years of her career in La Fátima, tells this newspaper. “I remember that in ’84, Fidel told us that in the east of Havana we had to build a hospital, because they were all far away, apart from the Naval, which is for the military. And now look at the invention. Here those from below have more knowledge than the yucca trunks that they send.”

The health center was a constant source of complaints from patients. Yolanda says that, when she gave birth to her son – now one year old – her husband had to carry buckets of water from the house, since the hospital did not have the supply. The dirt and appearance of abandonment, a result of the lack of painting and maintenance, were a source of displeasure and negative comments among patients.

“It is true that the place was on its last legs,” the doctor acknowledges. “But imagine, those who worked there did it for 3,000 pesos a month and without resources. The hospital was running out of staff and without a budget, but it had been like this for years. Now, ask anyone: they are going to prefer their hospital, even if it was bad, rather than not having it. The solution cannot be to close it. This way we are all screwed.”

Due to its geographical location, the hospital served the population of Guanabacoa, Regla, La Habana del Este and Cotorro. With the new closure, patients from these peripheral municipalities of the capital will have to move to other centers that are already saturated due, among other reasons, to the health crisis that the Island is going through due to the lack of supplies and trained personnel.

“Putting anyone in charge of Health doesn’t work, because internationally there are standards for everything. Even to build a health center there are requirements about where to do it,” continues the doctor, who even held administrative positions within the system. “But as they put anyone, what they have done is destroy what was there. Who knows what they will do with La Fátima; it is very sad. And the workers, now they relocate them God knows where, without transportation, and thus they lose the few that remain.”

Although no explanations have been given to the staff or the population about the total closure of the hospital, the majority believes that it is due to a lack of resources, and that the authorities prefer to concentrate efforts on more central hospitals in better conditions. “They tell us that it is a ‘reorganization’, but come on, it is a lifelong closure, because they no longer care about maintaining it. The same thing happened with the maternity homes here in Guanabacoa: there were three, and only one remains,” says Jessica, another of the nurses who was on duty that day.

Lorena, who lives a few kilometers from La Fátima, confesses a new concern: “One has a tremendous amount of work to get any test done nowadays. I myself have some cysts in my breasts, and they had told me to get checked annually to see if they grew. Right now I don’t know where to go. It’s not the same to move within my municipality as to go to Luyanó or El Vedado, hoping that, with luck, they will treat me, because it is not certain that those places are offering those services either. It has not been confirmed. clarified if the hospital will maintain any function, such as Línea maternity, because you go and ask and they tell you that the place is closed And it was not only a place for pregnant women: they also performed cytology, exudates, ultrasounds, etc.

One of the sectors hardest hit by the crisis that the Island is going through is health and its impoverished population care structure, whose fragility became more evident during the covid-19 pandemic. Since then, the situation has only gotten worse, and center closures and poor care are becoming more common. Currently, the arbovirus epidemic keeps the Cuban health system on the brink of collapse.