‘To play God’: Cuba’s healthcare system collapses under US pressure

Cuba's healthcare infrastructure, historically regarded as a revolutionary achievement, is experiencing severe degradation following the Trump administration's January fuel blockade against the island. The sanctions restrict foreign oil shipments and threaten countries that export fuel to Cuba with punishing tariffs, resulting in near-daily power outages lasting up to 20 hours. These blackouts have compounded existing shortages of essential medicines and medical supplies, forcing healthcare providers to ration resources and make impossible treatment decisions.

The human cost of these constraints has become evident in Cuban hospitals. At the William Soler Pediatric Hospital in Havana, neonatal surgical survival rates have collapsed from over 90 percent to below 50 percent in the first half of the year. Medical professionals attribute many deaths not to surgical complications but to preventable infections stemming from diminished hygiene standards, malnutrition, and limited antibiotic availability. Hospital leadership reports that treatment waiting lists, once cleared within a month, now face indefinite backlogs as providers struggle to allocate scarce resources.

Doctors working within Cuba's free, public, and universal healthcare system describe an untenable situation where they must choose which patients receive treatment. Alioth Fernandez, head of surgical services at the pediatric hospital, characterized the dilemma as forcing medical professionals to "play God" when resources permit only a single procedure but multiple children require urgent care. Although Cuba has endured decades of US economic restrictions, healthcare experts indicate that recent sanctions intensification has accelerated the system's decline and contributed to rising mortality rates across the island.