In all cases, the person authorized to receive medicine is both responsible and accountable. Misappropriation by individuals in Cuba is a very serious offense. We send specific and detailed inventories with every shipment, and then check these inventories with the hospitals. We collect medicine from drug reps, pharmaceutical companies, doctors, clinics, hospitals, anywhere we can. If it is sent to a larger hospital, it may be repackaged with some supplies sent to other hospitals if the need is greater in the second hospital.
All health care is free in Cuba.
We've gone on occasion to surrounding hospitals in the province of Santiago, as well as to Varadero, Camaguey, Guantanamo, Holguin, and a few other cities. Planeloads and planeloads every day. Cuban doctors have the skills to do open heart surgery, but they often lack the scalpels to cut you open and the sutures to tie you up. Computers are necessary and nonexistent. Some hospitals have one or two, and some have none.