Cuba, short of hard currency and faced with a mean-spirited US Blockade is short of basic medical supplies from aspirin to antibiotics. Rubber gloves, syringes and needles, anesthetics, disinfectants and energy shortages conspire to challenge nurses, doctors and staff in providing Cuban citizens with the health care promised in formal social policy. Advanced technology, CAT scanning equipment, dialysis machines, MIR technology and other high tech innovations found in Europe and North America are low on the priority list of Cuba. Then too, much of the medical technology installed in Cuban hospitals is from the defunct Soviet Bloc. Parts are hard to come by.
Many visitors bring medical supplies when they visit Cuba for scholarly purpose.
Water supply is uneven. Although water in most places is drinkable, energy supplies often require supply shut down during the hours between Midnight and 6 am. This saves fuel, chemicals, machinery and other aspects of water supply taken for granted by North Americans. All in all, the story of the Cuban Health Care System is one of doctors, nurses and staff fighting a holding operation until Cuba can generate more hard currency and until US Citizens can end the economic blockade of Cuba. Air Pollution is serious.