In Regards to the Letter from the Cuban Doctors to Raul Castro

In Regards to the Letter from the Cuban Doctors to Raul Castro / Jeovany
Jimenez Vega
Jeovany J. Vega, Translator: Unstated

Every day in this world, in one site or another, clearly or covertly
according the dignity of each person, Cuban Public Health Professionals
express their opinions about the calamitous situation they face. But
this time it is not one more conversation in the hallway, rather this
September 20 the site Cubenecuentro published a letter that circulated
on the Internet, via emails and hand to hand, where a presumed group of
surgeons in the Calixto Garcia Hospital in the Cuban capital, openly
exposed to President Raul Castro the depressing structural and
functional state of this institution.

It is sad but true, a document is not backed up by specific names, which
obviously casts doubt about its authenticity, but it appears connected
to the Surgery Department of the hospital. It will always be my precept
to back up with my name and signature what I write as a testament to my
character and the conviction of my opinions, and further evidence that I
have the courage to defend them, so do not despise the detail of
anonymity when it comes to something as tricky as bad working conditions
and living standards of professionals in my sector.

But beyond that questions about whether the text has come from the hands
of surgeons or not, one thing is certain it is even more important: that
whatever is said there, no matter who says it, is an absolute and
painful truth , fully extrapolated to the rest of health care centers in
the Cuban Public Health system.

Although undoubtedly there will always be worse cases, don't forget that
we are speaking here of one of the most emblematic of the country
hospitals, the former No. 1 Military Hospital founded in the late
nineteenth century, so let's put things in perspective: if the trunk
from which the rest of our medical schools and hospitals emerged in the
capital's mecca of hospitals, has endured for decades in the
aforementioned state of disrepair, and it may have already led to the
situation in the separate municipal hospitals and the network of
polyclinics and dark doctor's offices scattered across the Cuban
geography, constantly lauded with praise by an unscrupulous triumphalist
press incapable of telling the truth.

The chronic inattention and the neglect to which Public Health
professionals are subject; the worst working conditions, the rest and
meals; the medical shifts up to 24 hours completely gratis "in a country
where entitlements are ended…"; the palpable deterioration of most of
our assistance centers; the scarcities, if not the constant lack of
usable material, of medications and diagnostic tools; the workload not
remunerated to cover for colleagues who have left on medical missions
abroad; the miserable salaries that they pay us, the disrespect this
implies for the sector responsible for income of more than 10 billion
dollars a year* in hard cash, and the humiliation involved in our being
subjected to poverty despite this; the mental and physical exhaustion
from not being able to feed our families in the midst of a chaotic
economy while we know well that "… the destructive traces of corruption
pass with singular debauchery…"; the supremely demonstrated indifference
of the ministry, party and government officials to listen to us with
respect, the great frustration this generates and the absolute lack of
objectivity in the official press to face, with courage and ethics, a
problem that is not solved — plain and simple — because of lack of
political will. All this was said before and is repeated here, others
with words, or with hands that sign, but it is the same authentic truth
that you are hearing.

Taking the bull by the horns, who wrote bluntly blamed the Cuban
government for this situation and demanded they resolve it. The document
does not carry a tone of submission, but it is written with clarity,
respect and pride — a combination scarce in these times — reportedly by
professionals who every day save new lives and feel extremely neglected,
if not betrayed by a government, a party and a Ministry of Health that
do absolutely nothing to rescue us from the abyss.

To have allowed a hospital as prestigious as the Calixto Garcia to sink
into such neglect to the point of seriously risking its very reason for
being, should be sufficient to dishonorably expel from office Dr. José
Ramón Balaguer Cabrera, who has been the Minister of Public Health
during most of the time referred to in the letter, and the one maximally
responsible, therefore, for the scandalous disaster at the Havana
Psychiatric Hospital in early 2010, which killed dozens of mental patients.

But instead of getting his sell-earned punishment, that gentleman was
chosen, with honors included, to lead the Ideological Department of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party. While acknowledging, in his
defense, that Dr. Balaguer was much more engaged with disabling the
doctors who expressed their opinions than in resolving their problems,
so maybe he never heard about the dramatic deterioration of institutions
such as the Calixto Garcia.

At this historic medical school for which I still have strong feelings
because I trained there in the early '90s under the tutelage of eminent
professors like Dr. Mercedes Batule and Dr. San Martin, living
professors I had the privilege of meeting and who, since then — it's
been more than 20 years — have long suffered this ancestral neglect that
our colleagues even mentioned to Raúl Castro.

I clearly remember that my greatly admired professor would occasionally
accompany us to the main dining room, and while he talked amiably about
every trifle, it hurt my soul to see him eat that tasteless slop.
Unfortunately those professors are no longer with us, but I live
convinced that today they would admire the dignity of the brave who are
not resigned to bowing down to ignominy.

Now it only remains to see what will be the reaction of the Ministry of
Public Health and the Cuban government, accustomed to furious
intransigence against any gesture that questions them. Suddenly, where
there is only a group of physicians who ethically address their
authorities, some dunce could see a "counterrevolutionary faction," or
perhaps an attempt by the CIA, or a faction of the "mercenaries in the
service of empire"; I have many experiences regarding this, believe me.

But these times are not the same. I'm just saying that if this document
was authentic and unleashed a hunt for the perpetrators, this time my
colleagues would not be alone: I, Citizen Zero, will not stand by with
my arms crossed and would run every risk until the end and engage in any
battle to redeem them, because it is our silence that keeps us at the
bottom of this abyss; because confronting the indolence of any
controversy will be better; because it is worth anything to try to
rescue the country from the absurdities that "… will compromise the
future …" and because each step taken, however small, will definitely
improve the world.

*Translator's note: Payment/grants in oil and cash from Venezuela; in
exchange Cuba sends doctors and other workers.

October 1 2012

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