CUBAN TRANSITIONS

While traveling in Cuba, we heard many times Cubans speak with pride of their outstanding free education and medical care. Unfortunately for me, I got to experience the Cuban healthcare system firsthand.

As a child, I seemed to make a habit out of getting sick while on family vacations. I had the flu in Lake Placid, strep throat in San Francisco, an ear infection in Nova Scotia, and a stomach bug in Paris, among other various coughs and colds. It was just my luck that this trend continued in Cuba. For a few days I had been feeling sick, then better, then sick, then better again. But while we were checking in to the Hotel Barlovento in Varadero, I knew that I was seriously ill and needed to see a doctor. So, I took my bags to my room, got all my important papers, and then was herded onto the bus, along with Yoel, Adriana and Ishaira. I was taken to a tourist medical clinic not far from the hotel, the Clinica Internacional Varadero. It was bright and clean, and when we arrived, around eight o’clock, there were no other patients in sight. I sat down for less than a minute in a waiting room, then was called into a patient exam room. The doctor, Dra. Cruz, was a friendly women, probably somewhere in her forties. She spoke English fairly well, but mostly Yoel translated for me as I described my overall feelings of weakness in my limbs, a bad cough with lots of mucus, and chills that came and went. A nurse came to take my temperature. It was 39°C, or 102.1°F. Dra. Cruz listened to my breathing, then she told me that I had acute bronchitis. She said that the nurse would give me a shot to lower my fever, and she prescribed me different medications. At this point, I was mildly freaking out and doing my best to maintain my composure, but I was fighting a losing battle against my own tears (being really sick in a foreign country is scary!). After receiving the shot, I was taken to the pharmacy, which was connected to the clinic. I was given three different prescriptions   – two antibiotics and a cough syrup with a strong expectorant, each of which I had to take three times a day. My bill came to just under 100 CUC. The doctor explained to me that back in the US I could take the bill, along with my travel affidavit, to be reimbursed through the US interests section. With all my medications and instructions from the doctor, I returned to the Hotel Barlovento to sleep and recuperate.

Two of the medications prescribed to me in Veradero

Over all, I was impressed with the Cuban medical system. I received treatment quickly and easily, and I almost entirely better by the time we left Varadero. But there were some peculiarities that I noticed in the Cuban tourist health industry. The clinic I went to was run by Cubanacan, the government tourist industry. It struck me as strange that rather being run through the government health ministry, the clinic fell under the control of Cubanacan. In certain ways, the Cuban treatment was somewhat old fashioned. The nurse wore a starched white nurses’ uniform with a neat blouse and skirt, complete with a little white hat pinned to her hair. (Two days later, I noticed that the nurse who treated Ishaira in the Hotel Plaza wore a similar traditional uniform, except with the addition of pretty floral printed tights to add some personal character to the ensemble). The thermometer used to take my temperature was a glass underarm model, not a digital under the tongue model as is typical in the States. Also, for my shot, the nurse used a glass syringe with a big long needle, not a disposable plastic syringe. Our class had been told that due to the embargo, Cubans make a lot of their own medications in Cuba. However, of the three prescriptions I received, two were made in Argentina and one was made in Columbia.

As an American tourist, I experienced only a small segment of the Cuban healthcare industry, and I know that the process for Cubans receiving medical treatment is quite different than what I experienced at an international tourist clinic. But from the treatment I received, I can see why the Cuban healthcare system is such a point of pride for Cubans. Even though I didn’t get to see the beautiful beaches of Varadero, I at least left the peninsula feeling much better than I did when I arrived.