Official figures confirm that the exodus of health personnel is a sustained trend that questions the viability of the Cuban health model and puts national public health at risk.
Dublin, Ireland.- Some 5,399 Cuban doctors left the health centers in the last year, which represents a 7 % decrease compared to the previous year, according to official figures. The number of doctors of the Ministry of Public Health of Cuba (Minsap) went from 80,763 in 2023 to 75,364 in 2024, which reflects a sustained contraction in the health sector.
As a consequence, the number of inhabitants per doctor increased from 103 to 131 in the last four years, a figure that includes professionals sent abroad within the calls “Internationalist missions”, Although the real number of these is no longer published.
The data, published by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) in the Statistical Yearbook of Cuba 2024show negative trends in all specialties of Cuban doctors with respect to the previous year.
The most pronounced fall is recorded among family doctors, Pilar of the Cuban community system, whose number descended from 27,535 to only 12,912 in one year, which is equivalent to a loss of 53 %.
The absence of broken data on the personnel destined outside the country prevents precisely evaluating the impact of the exodus on primary care, considered the key piece of a health system that suffers a bleeding in the last four -year period.
Since the beginning of the Exodus in the National Health System (SNS) in 2021, after the COVID-19 crisis, Cuba has lost more than 77,500 health workers, according to official data. Only doctors represent 30,767 casualties, equivalent to almost 40 % of the exits registered in the sector in the period.
Between 2021 and 2024, the SNS also recorded the output of 8,472 stomatologists, 1,629 pharmaceuticals, 15,035 nurses, 8,143 technicians and 13,476 technologists and other graduates. The magnitude of these casualties confirms a structural crisis of retention and motivation of health personnel, with direct impact on the provision of basic health services throughout the country.
The year 2024 also closed with 1,413 beds less in healthcare services compared to 2023, for 4,782 less in just two years, if those that disappeared in 2022 are added, which shows a progressive deterioration of hospital infrastructure.
The combination of low wages, labor overload, shortage of supplies and deterioration of living and work conditions has turned the Cuban health sector in one of the most beaten by emigration and government neglect. While the State prioritizes the sending of medical personnel abroad as a source of currencies – of which less than 2 % is reinvested in the public system – hospitals and polyclinics within the island face a growing shortage of professionals and resources, which compromises basic attention and aggravates inequality in access to services.
Official figures, although incomplete and partial, confirm that the exodus of health personnel is not a conjunctural phenomenon, but a sustained tendency that questions the viability of the Cuban health model and puts national public health at risk.
